The federal government has a unique opportunity to implement acquisition reforms in President Donald Trump’s second term, according to Larry Allen, associate administrator of the Office of Government-wide Policy at the General Services Administration.
Allen said a new presidential administration and the GSA’s “exceptionally dynamic” leadership team presents an opportunity to streamline government procurement, Nextgov/FCW reported Friday. He said the White House has ongoing initiatives to direct how the government will purchase up to $1 trillion worth of goods and services each year. The programs will also affect vendors’ engagement with federal customers, he noted.
GSA’s OneGov Strategy
Allen pointed to the GSA’s OneGov Strategy as an example, noting that companies like Google and Adobe now offer discounts of more than 70 percent for their software offerings. GSA estimates that OneGov, led by Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum, could save federal agencies around $2 billion over three years.
Through the OneGov Strategy’s initial stage, the government expects to secure more enterprise-level agreements with software vendors soon, Allen said. He added that GSA aims to ramp up using such agreements to increase efficiency, reduce costs and deliver better outcomes to customers in the program’s next phase.
Saving Taxpayer Money
“The reason we put this in place is so that everybody can do it,” Allen said. “You’re going to get unbelievable pricing (and) you’re going to get an unbelievable level of service commitment. You should be using those enterprise agreements first before you even think about going anywhere else because this is going to save you money and the taxpayer money.”
