Office of Governmentwide Policy

Associate Administrator
G. Martin Wagner
Chief of Staff
John G. Sindelar
Deputy Associate Administrators
· David Bibb
Real Property
· Francis A. McDonough
Intergovernmental Solutions
· Becky Rhodes
Transportation and Personal Property
· Ida Ustad
Acquisition Policy
· Laurence Wolfe (Acting)
Information Technology
Directors
· James L. Dean
Committee Management Secretariat Staff
· Mark G. Schoenberg
Regulatory Information Service Center
· Tony Trenkle
Electronic Commerce

Employees: 270

The Office of Governmentwide Policy (OGP) collaborates with the Federal community and others to develop policies and guidelines, to provide education and training, and to identify best practices in the areas served by GSA's business lines:

· real property and personal property
· travel and transportation
· acquisition
· information technology (IT)
· regulatory information
· use of Federal advisory committees.

OGP is the Federal focal point for electronic commerce, Government collaboration, shared systems, professional development, acquisition, and regulatory information.

Electronic commerce is the comprehensive end-to-end electronic exchange of information needed to do business. OGP has taken the lead in coordinating Federal electronic commerce policies. It provides expertise on emerging IT applications, developing policies and guidance for software engineering, multimedia technology, cost models and the Internet. Co-chairing a Governmentwide electronic commerce program office, OGP provides continuity and a focus of activity for (1) Government card services; (2) electronic benefits transfer rollout; (3) acquisition of management and technical support; (4) design, development and prototyping technology; and (5) development of new policies to promote the use of electronic commerce.

OGP is pioneering the use of smart card technologies to provide Federal users with charge cards embedded with tiny computer chips that contain identifying information, account balances and other data. One smart card will enable the user to purchase a wide variety of items, from computers to telephone calls to gasoline, and will lead to further efficiencies in Federal acquisition programs. OGP expects to award a smart card contract in FY 1998.

OGP is supporting the development of a nationwide standard Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) System to deliver Government benefits, such as food stamps, electronically by 1999.

By September 1997, half of the States were using EBT systems to provide cash and nutrition program benefits to "unbanked" households. This enables participants to obtain cash at ATMs or to spend benefits at point-of sell devices in the same manner as bank debit card users. OGP coordinates the direction of the EBT rollout by the Federal EBT Principals, composed of executives from GSA and five other agencies.

OGP established the Interagency Electronic Grants Committee, as part of the Vice President's Access America Plan, to develop an electronic consolidated grants application system and other initiatives to reengineer the $250 billion Federal grants process.

Governmentwide Collaboration

OGP works with over 70 interagency groups, including local, State and other national governments, in developing and refining Governmentwide policies.

OGP is leading the effort to resolve intergovernmental IT issues with local, state and other national governments. It provides a variety of products and services to facilitate intergovernmental collaboration, including the State and International Government IT Directories, and publishes the Intergovernmental Solutions Newsletter, a publication that highlights emerging intergovernmental IT issues such as smart cards and electronic commerce.

OGP chairs the U.S. Intergovernmental Advisory Board, which focuses on educating IT professionals nationwide. It participates in the Intergovernmental Enterprise Panel, which identifies issues and priorities and addresses IT challenges in delivering human services.

OGP also chairs the International Council for IT in Government Administration, which helps senior managers in 25 countries formulate IT policy to improve public administration. It supports the international G-7 Government On-line Project, which emphasizes innovation in service delivery to citizens. In 1997, OGP officials met with their counterparts from Norway, Sweden, Canada, Korea and Australia to discuss such issues as electronic commerce, Year 2000 programming, legislation, the Chief Information Officer concept, public key infrastructure, and Internet/Intranet policies.

OGP facilitates public/private information-sharing for effective real property use. Its comprehensive study of space-use standards and best practices in both sectors led to policy recommendations for improving real property management and space utilization throughout the Government. In addition, OGP has initiated the first comprehensive study of intergovernmental and local interests in community-based real property issues, which will result in an Interagency Community-based Master Plan.

In FY 1997, OGP brought Federal agencies and the telecommunications industry together to discuss issues surrounding the placement of commercial wireless antennas on Federal property. A working group was formed to revise Federal guidelines for antenna-siting and, as a result, 58 antennas are currently installed on GSA buildings. OGP also participated with 15 other Federal agencies in an in-depth Governmentwide review of Federal real property disposal policies.

OGP writes Federal travel regulations and determines travel expense reimbursement rates. It played a key role in the interagency project that developed a package of legislative and regulatory reforms enacted in 1996 and 1997 that will save the Government hundreds of millions of dollars a year. OGP develops and implements per diem rates (maximum reimbursement levels) for Federal travelers. The 1997 rates include the first change in the standard mainland U.S. lodging rate in eight years.

OGP develops goals and performance measures for managing the Federal motor vehicle and aircraft fleets, working with the 28 agencies that manage vehicles and the 18 agencies that manage aircraft. OGP also helps agencies comply with legislation requiring an increase in the numbers of alternative-fuel vehicles in the fleet.

OGP-led teams improve the return on investment for Federal personal property. OGP established four reinvention teams to review policies and procedures on exchange sale; to find ways to reduce the cost of the disposal/sale process; to streamline the process; and to design incentives for agencies to better identify property for disposal.

OGP's Committee Management Secretariat worked with over 50 agencies to implement a 1993 Executive Order that reduced the number of Federal advisory committees from 801 to 534. Largely because of OGP efforts, there were only 520 such committees in FY 1997.

Shared Systems

OGP develops and maintains computer systems and databases that are used Governmentwide.

Modernization of the FIRM real property inventory system permits timely access to information on leasing, construction, renovation and asset management for about 25% of all civilian Government-owned and leased property. OGP now has installed FIRM software and provided training and technical support for 17 Federal agencies and bureaus. Five agencies were added to the system in FY 1997.

The Federal Procurement Data Center assembles detailed information on more than 20 million contract actions for Federal contracts for $25,000 or more. During FY 1997, the Federal Procurement Data System was upgraded from a timesharing environment to an in-house, server-based system. It now offers on-line access and editing as well as batch data submissions, and it provides data on CD-ROM and the Internet.

The Acquisition Reform Network (ARNet) is the primary hub for Internet-based acquisition tools and information. It is the entryway to various databases such as the Federal Acquisition Regulation, the Commerce Business Daily, the List of Parties Excluded from Federal Procurement and Nonprocurement Programs, and electronic catalogs such as GSA Advantage!TM.

OGP operates the Federal Aviation Management Information System (FAMIS), which assembles data on Federal civilian aircraft inventories, costs, utilization, contract services, facilities and travel by senior Federal officials.

Professional Development

OGP offers professional development opportunities for Federal acquisitions and IT personnel.

Its Federal Acquisition Institute (FAI) develops training programs to help Federal procurement personnel learn the skills and knowledge they need to award and administer contracts competently. The FAI also provides career development services for the Federal acquisition workforce; helps agencies recruit highly-qualified personnel; and coordinates research to improve the procurement process. In FY 1997, FAI began pilot-testing its On-line University, a promising experiment in state-of-the-art distance learning.

OGP provided mail management training for approximately 1,700 Federal employees in FY 1997. In response to an urgent need for training in handling potential letter bombs, OGP developed and delivered a course to more than 400 workers within two weeks.

OGP manages the Trail Boss program to train managers of Federal IT systems. By the end of FY 1997, almost 1,000 IT managers from various Federal agencies had been trained. Trail Boss graduates manage most of the major Federal IT systems.

The 1,000 by 2000 program to develop IT leaders is a cooperative effort with 28 universities around the country to prepare Government IT managers for leadership roles in information resources management (IRM). Its objective is to train 1,000 IRM professionals by the year 2000. There have been almost 500 graduates, 109 of them in FY 1997. Almost 700 students were enrolled at the end of the fiscal year.

Acquisition Systems and Support

As one of three agencies responsible for promulgating the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), GSA is actively involved in implementing procurement laws that affect all Federal agencies.

OGP's Office of Acquisition Policy supports the Federal acquisition system, through which the Government obligates $200 billion annually. OGP is leading the effort to create an efficient, timely and customer-focused procurement system. It provides cross-cutting management systems and support to the Federal community.

In FY 1997, OGP implemented fundamental changes affecting how the Executive Branch manages procurements of a wide variety of services.

OGP has the authority to suspend and debar contractors who are not responsible business partners. Suspension is temporary disqualification from Federal contracting and subcontracting; debarment results in disqualification for a specified period of time. In FY 1997, OGP completed 183 suspension and debarment actions.

Information Technology

OGP provides executive and interagency IT support, including critical policy-level support to the CIO Council, in acquisition pilot projects, training, planning, outreach, and resolution of the Year 2000 computer programming problems. OGP also supports the Government IT Services Board and provides IT tools to support agencies' missions. In response to increasingly complex issues arising from use of the Internet, OGP created a Federal Webmasters Working Group to identify, discuss and collaborate on policy concerns imposed by the Privacy Act and the Freedom of Information Act.

Regulatory Information Service Center

The center compiles and disseminates information about Federal regulatory activity. Twice a year, under Executive Order 12866, it compiles and publishes the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, which describes regulatory activities under development or recently completed at approximately 60 Federal Departments and agencies. The fall Agenda contains the Regulatory Plan, which discusses agencies' regulatory priorities and provides fuller descriptions of their most significant rulemakings.

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