Lurita Doan, former administrator of the General Services Administration, set out to restore GSA’s reputation for customer service. But some procurement experts say she pulled the agency off course in her nearly two years as chief and failed to achieve her goals.
Doan steered GSA away from its primary mission of buying for its customer agencies, said Bob Woods, former commissioner of GSA’s Federal Technology Service and now president of Topside Consulting. Wood said GSA is a service agency with a mandate to be the central procurement agency for the federal government, and customers should be the agency’s primary concern.
“Your greatest allies are clients that believe you’re bringing them value,” Woods said.
Doan had lost important allies in the federal information technology community by the time President Bush asked her to resign last week, observers say.
Some government and IT industry leaders said they had concerns about Doan’s unguarded management style. “She broke a lot of china,” said Alan Chvotkin, senior vice president and counsel of the Professional Services Council.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, had called for Doan’s resignation in June 2007. Last week, he said the president’s request for her resignation was the right decision.
“GSA should now be able to return to its nonpartisan tradition and its work as our government’s premier contracting agency,” Waxman said.
Members of the federal IT community have similar advice for David Bibb, now acting GSA administrator. Bibb must focus on customer service, said Larry Allen, president of the Coalition for Government Procurement, which represents companies that sell products and services to the federal government. Bibb has been acting administrator before and knows how to regain customer confidence, Allen said. “He’ll take GSA where it needs to go next.”
Bibb led GSA after Stephen Perry resigned in October 2005 until Doan became administrator in May 2006.
Woods said Doan improved GSA in some ways, but she took on issues that weren’t GSA’s primary concern. “She gets points on energy, but her aim wasn’t that good,” he said.
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