Services
By leveraging the buying power of the Federal market, GSA provides its customers top-quality services at discount prices from world-class providers. We also support services, such as child care and innovative automotive technologies, for the public good. Use of commercial charge cards provided through GSA contracts continued to grow in FY 1997, as the first commercial fleet cards were issued. Commercial cards were used in FY 1997 to pay for over $4.9 billion in purchases, $3.6 billion in travel and related services, $72 million in fuel and other fleet services, and $25 million in telephone calls. GSA contracts provided Federal employees with 264,505 IMPAC/VISA purchase cards, 1.5 million American Express cards for travel, and over 478,000 Sprint and AT&T cards for telephone calls. In addition, Wright Express issued the first commercial fleet cards to 330,000 users of GSA fleet vehicles and those of 75 other agencies. The use of these cards saves the Government over $616 million a year in administrative costs. In FY 1998, GSA will award new contracts for the next generation of charge cards to a number of providers who will offer a wide variety of card services. The new programs will provide flexibility, richer transaction detail and state-of-the-art technology while streamlining payments for products, fuel and travel services.
After telecommunications reform in 1996, GSA developed new acquisition strategies for long-distance and local telephone services. GSA initiated two innovative programs to provide local and long-distance telecommunications services worldwide into the 21st century. Both take advantage of the reforms of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to increase responsiveness and expand services to FTS customers. For the first time, contractors will be able to offer Federal agencies both long-distance and local services. Those who win the long-distance contracts will be able to offer optional local services, and those who win the new local service contracts may offer optional long-distance service. In FY 1997, Congress approved the FTS2001 strategy to provide future long-distance voice and data services. GSA initiated the procurement process for what will be the largest Government contracts outside the Defense Department. Worth an estimated $5 billion to $8 billion in total, the FTS2001 contracts will replace the current 10-year long-distance service contracts with AT&T and Sprint that expire in November 1998. The new comprehensive contracts will offer all telecommunications services worldwide. The Metropolitan Area Acquisition (MAA) program for local telecommunications services will take advantage of competition to achieve an immediate, substantive and sustained price reduction for several layers of local service. The first MAA contracts, to be awarded in the last quarter of 1998, will be available to more than 100,000 Federal users in New York City, San Francisco and Chicago. MAA contracts will be awarded in 20 to 24 other cities in 1999.
GSA interagency partnerships with telephone companies produced user-friendly blue pages-where Government numbers are listed in telephone directories. GSA is redesigning the Federal blue pages in local telephone directories to make it easy to find phone numbers for Federal services. Since Government numbers have traditionally been listed by organization, Federal services have been difficult to locate-e.g., passport offices are listed under "s" for State Department. The redesigned blue pages are organized by service-e.g., passport offices are listed under "p," Medicare under "m," and education and housing loans under "l." Listings are further identified by small icons, which are consistent in all redesigned blue pages. In partnership with GSA, several telephone companies produced revised blue pages in 15 cities in FY 1997, including Cleveland, OH, Fayetteville, NC, and Naples, FL.
GSA was key to security at the Oklahoma City bombing trial. The FY 1997 trial of convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh was held without incident in the Federal courthouse in Denver, under extremely tight security. As an integral part of the law enforcement team assembled for the trial, GSA assisted the U.S. Marshals Service and local law enforcement agencies with security services. GSA provided protection and access for the news media and employees who worked in the Denver Federal Complex, producing more than 8,000 identification smart cards specifically developed for this use. Since the 1995 incident, GSA has upgraded security in all Federal buildings nationwide and hired hundreds more uniformed Federal Protective Police Officers and contract guards.
To keep agencies equipped with up-to-date technology and IT support services at best prices, and to partner with contractors to minimize the risk of obsolescence, GSA initiated operational leasing and "seat management." In FY 1997, Government agencies spent over $2.7 billion on off-the-shelf computer hardware and software. Because of the continuous and rapid change in the IT industry, much of this equipment will be obsolete within a very few years. GSA's leasing program allows 15 vendors to enter into short-term leases for IT equipment ranging from personal computers to mainframes. For the first time, agencies may lease new IT equipment without having to purchase it at the end of the lease period. They will not incur the costs of purchasing soon-to-be-obsolete equipment or disposing of it. Several agencies have begun to use this option to acquire equipment ranging in cost from a few thousand dollars to millions.
GSA's "seat management" program builds upon the concept of leasing by fully outsourcing all desktop automation services. Private-sector vendors will take responsibility for acquiring, managing, and upgrading Federal agencies' desktop configurations and support, providing a full range of IT services, including computers, local area networks, service, help desks and software. The vendors will assume the risks of obsolescence, the costs of training and the responsibility for disposing of unwanted equipment. GSA issued a request for proposals in FY1997 and expects this service to be available in April 1998.
Affirming its support for a family-friendly work environment, GSA provided 108 quality child care centers for the Federal workforce and sought ways to make Federal child care more affordable. With the growing demand for affordable quality child care close to the workplace, and the need to support the Administration's Welfare-to-Work program, GSA opened three new on-site child care centers in FY 1997 and now manages 108 of the 225 Federal child care facilities. GSA-managed child care facilities serve Federal employees in 68 cities, 31 states and the District of Columbia, which serve more than 7,000 children. Seventy percent of GSA's child care facilities are professionally accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, a far higher percentage than the 5% accreditation rate for all child care centers nationwide. A 1997 GSA report on the affordability of child care for Federal employees found that the Federal child care system needs more adequate funding, better information and cohesion, more flexibility to pursue new funding and partnering initiatives, and a combination of strategies to address these needs. In submitting this report to the President, GSA's Administrator offered a plan to raise $8 million to $10 million to subsidize child care tuition for children of low-income families.
GSA fleet experiments with innovative automotive technologies, such as
alternative-fuel vehicles (AFVs), led to GSA's induction into the Clean
Air Hall of Fame. GSA has purchased over 14,500 AFVs since the program began
in 1991, more than any other organization. GSA has taken a lead role in
working with automotive manufacturers to move AFVs from test vehicles to
large scale production-line vehicles. GSA is also helping the commercial
sector develop a maintenance, repair and refueling infrastructure to support
AFVs, which generate less air pollution than gasoline-powered vehicles.
The alternative fuels used include ethanol and methanol, which are renewable
fuel sources, as well as compressed natural gas.
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