Staff Offices

Chief Financial Officer

Dennis Fischer
Chief Financial Officer

The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) oversees GSA's financial management, including budgeting, accounting, cash management, payroll, financial reporting, strategic planning and performance measurement. GSA's CFO manages financial operations on a scale comparable to a Fortune 100 company.

The CFO has principal responsibility for GSA's administrative controls and for administering its funds and employment ceilings. This office manages Finance Centers in Kansas City and Fort Worth and operates the agency's core financial systems, e.g., the accounting system, executive information system, and the financial part of other systems.

The CFO is responsible for preparing and administering GSA's budget, and for shepherding it through the approval process at the Office of Management and Budget and on Capitol Hill. The CFO analyzes, reviews and processes financial plans, and reviews legislation and regulations.

In addition to managing over 30 GSA funds, the CFO provides reimbursable accounting and payroll support for more than 40 agencies and commissions; supports the Department of Justice in litigating Indian Tribal Claims against the Government; and manages GSA's Commercial Activities Program.

The CFO provided payroll services for 14,400 GSA and 9,600 client employees in FY 1997. All new employees and 96% of all GSA employees were paid by electronic funds transfer through GSA's Direct Deposit Program in FY 1997, an increase of 3% over FY 1996.

The CFO billed Federal clients for over $10.2 billion in services and supplies in FY 1997. Although 70% of this amount was collected directly through the Department of the Treasury, the CFO's Office sent out 364,000 bills.

Although 92% of GSA's vendor payments were made on time, other performance measures have declined in the past three years due to agency downsizing. GSA earned only $2.7 million, or 86% in discounts in FY 1997-an 11% reduction from the previous year; and paid 51% more interest on late payments to vendors in FY 1997-$124 per million dollars disbursed.

GSA's cash management function is increasingly electronic. Nearly half the $9.8 billion in disbursements, and 26% of all invoices, were paid electronically. GSA's credit card program, which receives electronic vendor invoices, increased over 200% to $76 million in FY 1997. These percentages will increase as more vendors provide electronic invoices. In FY 1997, only 7% of GSA's invoices were received electronically.

GSA pursues the assessment of civil monetary penalties, which include non-criminal penalties, fines and other monetary sanctions imposed by administrative proceedings or Federal court actions. In FY 1997, GSA assessed and collected over $46,000, and reduced $1 million by agreement, leaving an outstanding penalty balance of $50,000.

The CFO is responsible for the agency's financial management and all financial reporting, and produces the agency's comprehensive annual reports and audited financial statements. GSA's

financial statements have been subject to an outside audit for the past 10 years and earned unqualified opinions each year. This standard of excellence is unmatched by any other large Federal agency. In cooperation with the Office of Public Affairs, the CFO produced this Annual Report, which incorporates the auditors' report and other required reports, including the Prompt Payment

Report and the Cash Management and Electronic Payments, Receivables Management and Civil Monetary Penalties report.

The CFO oversees GSA's strategic planning process, coordinates the agency's quarterly General Performance Reviews and helps develop performance measures for all GSA business lines. In FY 1997, GSA submitted its first multi-year strategic plan to Congress under the Government Performance and Results Act.

Chief Information Officer

Joe Thompson
Chief Information Officer

The Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) is responsible for applying state-of-the-art information technology to achieve GSA's business goals and to support agency programs. Established by Congress in 1996, the CIO is the principal advisor to the GSA Administrator and to all GSA offices on business-related information technology.

This office ensures the best possible return on GSA's technology investments by working with the agency's top leadership on its Business Technology Council, which guides the GSA information technology capital planning and investment process, required of all Federal agencies under the Clinger-Cohen Act. In FY 1997, GSA was the first agency to publish its own capital-planning and investment model.

A top priority for the GSA Business Technology Council is the creation of the agency's Corporate Information Network, which will give GSA one of the most comprehensive and efficient communications systems in Government. A model for other agencies, the Network is based on the innovative "seat management" concept, which offers short-term leases and timely upgrades of computer equipment and eliminates the need for agencies to purchase (and dispose of) soon-to-be-obsolete equipment. It will feature a single Local Area Network, electronically configured so it can be managed remotely by a contractor. It will also provide a National Notes Infrastructure; innovative applications and groupware, and a fully digital Wide-Area Band Network.

With E-mail, Internet and Intranet service already in place, the agency is moving aggressively to implement well-designed and forward-thinking IT solutions to address our unique operating program requirements. Standard, modern computing tools, applications, and local network services will move information to our customers faster and more smoothly, under the guidance of the Chief Information Officer.

Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs

William R. Ratchford
Associate Administrator

The Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs is GSA's liaison with Congress. The Office coordinates meetings and testimony on Capitol Hill for the Administrator and other agency senior staff; helps Congressional offices resolve GSA-related problems; coordinates responses to Congressional inquiries; and shepherds the GSA legislative program and budget through Congress.

GSA works closely with the six Congressional committees that oversee GSA operations: the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the House Government Reform Committee, and the Treasury, Postal Appropriations Subcommittees for both the House and Senate.

GSA supports 1,413 home-state offices for Senators and Members of Congress. We provide office space, furniture, furnishings, furniture repair, property disposal, equipment and supplies, and storage and relocation services through a Congressional Services Representative in each GSA region.

The Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs responded to more than 1,000 Congressional inquiries in FY 1997. Most were in regard to cooperative purchasing, Governors Island, child care, Federal buildings, and the Federal Technology Service.

Enterprise Development

Dietra L. Ford
Associate Administrator

The mission of the Office of Enterprise Development (OED) is to increase participation in Federal procurement by small, small disadvantaged, and women-owned small businesses. OED's multifaceted agenda has three major components: policy, program and outreach. It provides advice and access to Government contracting experts, and sponsors programs that nurture entrepreneurial endeavors and enhance technological capabilities. It works with the Small Business Centers in GSA's regional offices nationwide and Small Business Technical Advisors in each GSA service.

OED's small business outreach activities include marketing workshops, electronic commerce training sessions, interagency networking meetings, trade missions, roundtables, forums, procurement conferences, workshops for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic Service Institutions, and panel discussions on contracting opportunities for women business-owners.

OED also ensures that GSA policies and programs reflect the needs of small businesses and tracks the achievement of Government small business procurement goals. The $2.8 billion in GSA contracts for small, small disadvantaged and women-owned small businesses in FY 1997 constituted 40% of all GSA contract obligations reported to the Federal Procurement Data Center for FY 1997. This amount includes $738 million for minority-owned small businesses, $168 million for women-owned small businesses, $449 million for Section 8(a) businesses and $289 million for small disadvantaged businesses.

General Counsel

Emily C. Hewitt
General Counsel

The Office of General Counsel (OGC) provides legal support to GSA's programs in a variety of areas, including Government contracting; personnel and labor relations; equal employment opportunity; appropriations and finance; the Freedom of Information Act; the Federal Advisory Committee Act; the Privacy Act and all aspects of ethics compliance.

Highlights of OGC's accomplishments in FY 1997 include the following:

· OGC helped to develop and lead nationwide training in the streamlined Can't Beat GSA Leasing practices, and advanced the new leasing program by helping to procure commercial leasing brokerage contracts for use by GSA's customer agencies.

· Based on innovative pilot programs in GSA's regions, OGC is teaming with the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity to make mediation the rule in resolving employment disputes rapidly and informally.

· OGC supported GSA's interagency initiatives to streamline the Federal Travel Regulation and reduce travel relocation and administrative costs by eliminating layers of paperwork.

· OGC helped design a procurement for a Government smart card.

· OGC helped negotiate and effect an agreement to enable GSA's economical FTS2000 long-distance service to be made available to the Quileute Tribe in La Push, WA. The Quileute Memorandum of Understanding is a model for future intergovernmental agreements.

Management and Workplace Programs

Susan Clampitt
Associate Administrator

The Office of Management and Workplace Programs is GSA's human resource management and administrative support unit. Its primary responsibilities include personnel services, labor relations, employee development and incentive programs, and administrative services. It works with other GSA organizations to provide leadership and manage workplace activities such as child care and telecommuting.

It also provides graphics, print reproduction, warehousing, distribution and procurement services for GSA and 80 other Federal agencies.

The Office is using technology to improve service while reducing costs. Using telephones, fax machines, InSite (GSA's intranet), and the Internet, GSA employees have unequaled access to human resources information such as awards, benefits, and vacancy announcements. In FY 1997, GSA introduced its electronic GSA Benefits-Line service to provide up-to-date information on life insurance, health insurance, and the Thrift Savings Plan. Employees may access the GSA BenefitsLine 7 days a week, 24 hours a day via a touch-tone phone. An estimated $15,000 savings was realized during the first 30 days of operation with over 2,500 calls logged into the system.

Since 1993, downsizing has reduced GSA's workforce by 29% to 14,398 as of September 30, 1997. This office has handled 4,271 voluntary separations under buyout authority during this period, 1,426 of them in FY 1997.

Public Affairs

Beth W. Newburger
Associate Administrator

The Office of Public Affairs is GSA's marketing, communications and media relations department, with primary responsibility for fashioning the agency's message and disseminating information to the press, the public, other Government offices, and GSA employees. Public Affairs professionals deliver GSA's message through the media, in high-quality publications and videotapes, and on the Internet. They also produce videotapes and broadcasts for GSA and other agencies on a reimbursable basis.

In FY 1997, Public Affairs created an agencywide Marketing Council to consolidate and focus GSA's marketing activities. The Council brings together decision-makers from all GSA services to build and promote a unified image for the agency, to avoid overlap and duplication in marketing efforts and to maximize the impact of all agency promotions. Public Affairs is also a lead player in GSA's strategic planning process.

The same strategic thinking processes are applied to the development of media strategies. Through regular contacts with print, broadcast and cable news media, Public Affairs obtains broad coverage of GSA, clarifying complex issues and enhancing public understanding of agency initiatives. In FY 1997, GSA's message was carried on all major television, cable, and radio networks, in major metropolitan newspapers across the country and in prestigious consumer publications such as Architectural Digest.

Public Affairs also manages the Consumer Information Center (CIC), which helps Federal agencies disseminate information of broad consumer interest. Widely known for its Pueblo, CO, address, CIC distributed over 8 million copies of over 200 Government publications in FY 1997. They dealt with issues such as health, food, Federal benefits, housing, money, the environment, travel, cars and education. In the Fall 1997 CIC catalog, 52% of the publications listed were free and 33% cost 50 cents apiece. The most expensive cost $2.50. CIC publications are also available on the Internet

Board of Contract Appeals

Stephen M. Daniels
Chairman

The GSA Board of Contract Appeals is an independent tribunal which hears and decides contract disputes between Government contractors and GSA, as well as between contractors and other Executive agencies, including the Departments of Treasury, Commerce, and Education. The Board encourages resolution of these contract disputes through alternative dispute resolution (ADR). It also makes available ADR services on contract-related matters to all Executive agencies.

Since July 1996, the Board has heard and decided requests for review of transportation audit rate determinations and claims by Federal civilian employees regarding travel and relocation expenses.

In FY 1997, 157 appeals and cost applications were filed with the Board and 194 were resolved; 276 requests for transportation audit reviews and travel and relocation claims were filed and 298 were resolved. In all, the Board received 472 filings (including other types of cases) and resolved 527 cases during FY 1997.

Inspector General

William R. Barton
Inspector General

The mission of the Office of Inspector General (OIG) is to promote economy, efficiency and effectiveness within GSA and to prevent and detect fraud, waste and abuse in GSA's programs and operations. The OIG conducts an independent, objective, comprehensive audit and investigative program covering GSA's internal operations and external contractors. It also reviews existing and proposed legislation and regulations that could affect GSA's operations and policies. The OIG works closely with GSA management to identify opportunities for program and operational improvements, participates in GSA improvement task forces, and keeps the Administrator and Congress fully informed about GSA's progress in meeting organizational objectives.

The OIG produces audit and investigative reports, advisory and evaluation reports and legal opinions; makes civil and criminal referrals to the Department of Justice and other authorities; and refers to GSA officials cases of wrongdoing on the part of GSA employees, contractors, or private individuals doing business with the Government. In FY 1997, the OIG reviewed 406 legislative and regulatory matters and received 3,914 hotline calls and letters.

In FY 1997, the OIG made recommendations that would achieve over $121 million in program savings and made 423 referrals for criminal prosecution, civil litigation, and administrative action. Criminal referrals resulted in 31 successful prosecutions. Management decisions agreeing with audit recommendations, civil settlements, and court-ordered and investigative recoveries totaled over $290 million.

Canon U.S.A., Inc. paid $6 million to resolve its potential False Claims Act liability for misrepresenting its commercial discounting practices to GSA during negotiations for its 1988 Multiple Award Schedule contract. The case originated with a criminal investigation, which resulted in a former Canon official pleading guilty to mail fraud in 1994.

E-mail questions about this report to the Office of Communications

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