The General Services Administration  has established an ombudsman role that is meant to help the government agency communicate with industry vendors, Federal News Radio said Thursday.Jason Miller writes that Millisa Gary will step into the role and attempt to grow the federal acquisition service’s addressable spend across government to 66 percent from its current 15-17 percent.
“Millisa’s role is to meet with industry and take that feedback and translate that for our workforce,” said Jeff Koses, GSA’s senior procurement executive.
“Her role is to indeed be a voice for industry, make sure we are hearing their concerns and helping an industry partner in navigating our bureaucracy. Not necessarily to resolve the issue but to get them a fair hearing and to get them in front of the right audience. Often as we are pursuing best value and pursuing savings, the value of industry conversations can’t be overstated,” Koses added.
Miller said that three industry associations asked for an ombudsman to work in GSA.
“We are updating and recalibrating our procurement management review process, recognizing that the nature of expectations is changing, that procurement is becoming more complex, the tasks of a contracting officer are changing from transactional to leadership,” Koses added.
