GSA Chief: Streamlining Offices Key to Improving Agency

The ongoing process of consolidating functional offices at the General Services Administration is critical to cutting costs and delivering better service to other federal agencies, GSA's administrator said Tuesday

In a blog post, Dan Tangherlini said an ongoing "top to bottom" review of agency operations has led to decisions to consolidate several functions. He highlighted three key areas of streamlining:

• "In the days and weeks ahead," Tangherlini wrote, the agency will create a new technology office, bringing all information technology personnel, budgets and systems under GSA's chief information officer.
• The agency is consolidating all human capital management employees and functions together under its chief people officer.
• The Office of Administrative Services will bring together an array of functions, including executive correspondence, records management and audit response tracking.

Tangherlini noted that he had already ordered a consolidation in the area of financial management, directing the Public Building Service’s chief financial officer to report to GSA’s CFO.

"Our hope is that the better coordinated and more streamlined GSA will make us a model of how to provide the kind of efficient, effective, and transparent service that the American people expect from their government," he wrote in his blog post.

Tangherlini announced his top to bottom review in April 2012, shortly after taking the helm of the agency in the aftermath of a scandal involving lavish conferences. Last fall, he announced that the agency already had saved millions of dollars by cutting conference spending and reducing contracting fees.