Revenue woes lead GSA to freeze its own hiring
- By Rob Thormeyer
- Mar 03, 2006
A decline in business revenues, particularly in the IT Solutions program, has led the General Services Administration to impose an agencywide hiring freeze and consider offering early retirement packages in two divisions, according to administrator David Bibb.
In a Feb. 24 memo, Bibb said that, combined with GSA's ongoing reorganization, the revenue decline has created 'an unsustainable situation' for the agency.
'Specifically, our revenue has declined substantially in programs like IT Solutions, where cost has exceeded revenue,' Bibb wrote.
IT Solutions is an online shop for vendors' services and commodities. It's revenue peaked at the end of fiscal 2004.
As of August 2005, IT Solutions revenue at the regional level came in at $3.4 billion'$1.15 billion under GSA's planned expectations, according to agency financial results obtained by GCN.
Bibb has approved the organizational design for the new Federal Acquisition Service, merging GSA's Federal Technology and Federal Supply services.
In his memo, Bibb noted that acting FAS commissioner Marty Wagner had implemented a hiring freeze within FTS and FSS.
Wagner said that, despite the hiring freeze, no layoffs are expected. 'You do this to avoid getting into layoffs,' he said.
Bibb also said the agency is considering exercising its buyout authority for certain FTS and FSS positions to encourage early retirements.