The General Services Administration has added 53 small businesses to its list of apparent awardees for OASIS+, the massive government-wide contract vehicle for professional services not tech-centric in nature. GSA made these selections for the 8(a) track of OASIS+ and this move now opens the window for size challenges, or protests that question whether or not these companies are in fact small businesses.
According to three employees at GSA, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive internal operations and to avoid retribution, the agency has created an "ICE surge" team in recent weeks, referring to an effort to lease private offices to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency officers to establish long-term work space in the cities where they are operating. Last week, the GSA's Public Buildings Service posted a solicitation for "as-is, fully-finished and furnished office space in support of administrative operations for law enforcement" in 19 cities across the country.
By centralizing procurement for common goods and services, we can leverage the government's buying power to secure the best prices for the taxpayer. This effort will also streamline and consolidate governmentwide procurement and regulations, reducing duplication and enabling agencies to focus on their core missions. Procurement consolidation means that we will leverage the power of the wallet through use of IDIQs, shared services, demand management, and assisted acquisition.
Agencies buying a higher-tier bundle of ServiceNow's information technology products will see discounts as high as 70% though September 2028, the US General Services Administration said Wednesday in a statement. The deal follows a spate of similar announcements touting big discounts on software and cloud products used by federal workers, as the GSA has sought to centralize negotiations with technology vendors to leverage the federal government's purchasing power.
During his tenure, Ehikian oversaw mass workforce turnover at the agency, both via voluntary departures and layoffs, including the elimination of entire GSA teams. "By cutting outdated regulations, centralizing procurement, optimizing real estate, adopting smarter tech and modeling the change we want to see, we are delivering a better government for the American people," Ehikian wrote in his email, saying that "government doesn't need to be slow."
The return to office mandate was another effective lever to get people to quit since they limited the offices people could return to a small number of key cities, whereas much of GSA was purposefully hired remote.
