The former head of the General Services Administration discussed the upcoming changes to the federal government’s procurement procedures under President Donald Trump. In an interview with Federal News Network, Emily Murphy, former GSA administrator and a three-time Wash100 Award winner, shared what she expects to happen as agencies begin to consolidate the purchase of common goods and services.
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Over the Next 60 Days
Murphy predicts that, in the coming weeks, agencies will need to figure out which purchases can and cannot be consolidated. The Trump administration’s executive order on consolidation issued in March identifies 10 government-wide categories such as medical, construction, professional services and IT.
According to the government leader, there may be purchases that fall under the 10 categories but that agencies decide do not make sense to consolidate. She noted that agencies will also need to address questions related to personnel, funding and contracts.
“Are the people going to move with the procurements? How about the funding for those people? Is it going to come along with them or is GSA going to retain a fee-based structure and charge for those procurements going forward,” she asked. “So and then contract writing systems. Which contract writing system are they going to use? How are you going to communicate things back and forth? How are the financial systems going to communicate with each other?”
Promoting Shared Systems
Murphy also discussed what she would do if she was still at GSA. She said she would go to the Office of Shared Services and Performance Improvement within the Office of Governmentwide Policy, which has done work on setting common standards for a contract writing system, and move agencies toward using a shared financial management service.
The current senior fellow at the George Mason University Center for Government Contracting explained that many of the administration’s recent EOs advocate for shared services. Murphy revealed that she is particularly curious if payroll and human resource processes will also revert to shared services across federal agencies.
Murphy will join other government and government contracting leaders at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2025 Digital Transformation Summit on April 24. Register for the in-person today!
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