The General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Service (TTS) has never really fit in well with the agency’s overall mission of federal real estate management and acquisition. Started during the Obama administration as a way to help federal agencies develop and acquire innovative IT, TTS lost money for years, was at the center of agency in-fighting and now is the subject of a third negative audit in just under seven years. If TTS were a contractor it would be proposed for suspension or debarment.
It would be one thing if the relatively small office’s damage was self-contained. That’s not the case, though, as federal chief information officers are now openly expressing concern with GSA as an agency. As Federal News Network’s Jason Miller recently cited, federal CIO’s don’t want TTS anywhere around their operations. That negative experience is casting doubt on GSA’s core IT acquisition capabilities. GSA simply can’t afford to have one of the smallest parts of its operation upend the positive projects they have, such as the GSA schedules program, Alliant 2 and the upcoming Alliant 3 and OASIS+ contracts…
Successful executives in and outside of government know that you can’t run a sound organization by letting the tail wag the dog, regardless of whether the tail, itself, is the favored pet of the agency’s head. TTS remains a significant distraction from GSA’s core missions — missions that, ironically, have previously helped offset losses posted by TTS. The service is supposed to be dedicated to serving customer agency needs. Based on that criteria, alone, it’s tough to justify maintaining the organization when so many would-be customers have publicly said they won’t use it…
