Rising Star?
As some of you undoubtedly know by now, the White House has nominated Jim Williams to be the next administrator of the General Services Administration.
In case you forgot, the GSA is supposed to be the government's premier contracting agency. In fact it is an agency with troubles, led until not too long ago by Lurita Doan, whose tenure was marked by one controversy after another. Williams was her deputy, in charge of the GSA schedule program.
Here's a story from Federal Computer Week and one from Government Executive.
Williams has risen through the ranks of the federal procurement bureaucracy, receiving praise from colleagues and industry folks alike. He and his programs also have received criticism.
For example, before he joined GSA as Doan's deputy, he was director of the US Visit, the technology program to record and track the entry and exits of visitors to the United States. The US Visit program has been slammed repeatedly for mismanagement. According to a GAO audit, it has spent hundreds of millions on technology that didn't work well. One report last year said US Visit computers often froze or slowed to a crawl.
"These computer processing problems have the potential to not only inconvenience travelers because of the increased time needed to complete the inspection process, but to compromise security, particularly if CBP officers are unable to perform biometric checks--one of the critical reasons US-VISIT was installed at POEs," the GAO report said.
More on Williams' career before long.
If you are knowledgeable, or simply have an opinion, please send them along to Government Inc.
By Robert O'Harrow |
June 27, 2008; 11:53 AM ET
GSA
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Posted by: anon | July 9, 2008 1:03 PM
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I think a deeper concern about Williams is that he has several direct family members that work for some of the big government contractors that deal with GSA. This is a real potentially fatal conflict of interest. Fortunately, GSA has a very capable, professional and fair IG that will keep a close tab on all of his actions should he somehow get confirmed.