Originally posted by Monica Mayk Parham on Fed Connects
For many years, government contractors relied on events and trade shows to connect with their federal customers. These events provided highly valuable face-to-face time for enhancing existing relationships, as well as for help in procuring new contracts.
This is all about to change in 2013. According a recent Market Connections poll, 38% of government employees plan to attend fewer educational and trade events in 2013 than last year.
Originally posted by Dan Tangherlini on Federal Times
More than 60 years ago, the General Services Administration was founded in the wake of World War II to deliver consistent and responsive services to federal agencies, services which would also ensure value to taxpayers. Today, everyone at GSA continues to take enormous pride in that mission and since April of this year, we have been engaged in an effort to refocus this agency on our core objective of providing effective and efficient service for the entire federal government.
At a time when every agency is coping with shrinking budgets and growing expectations, we know that the services GSA provides have never been more important. For the past five months, GSA has conducted a top-to-bottom review to examine how we operate and what reforms could be implemented to help the entire federal government give the American people the service they deserve.
Originally posted by Kedar Pavgi on GovExec
The General Services Administration has decided to designate 10 additional cities as "nonstandard" areas for travel reimbursement rates, according to an announcement posted in the Federal Register on September 5.
The designation means the regions -- frequently traveled by government employees -- will get unique per diem rates rather than being lumped together with the rest of the country. The reimbursement levels will be determined by the average daily industry rate. In August, GSA announced it was freezing fiscal 2013 per diems at fiscal 2012 levels.
Originally posted by Amanda Palleschi on GovExec
The General Services Administration spent $7.7 million during the past four years to transport its long-distance telecommuters to meetings and conferences, new documents reveal.
Reports first obtained by CNN and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee show that 60 percent of the 379 workers in GSA's virtual employee program traveled to conferences and meetings, mostly on cross-country flights. GSA is reviewing the program after CNN reported in August that an employee who worked for a regional office in Kansas City, Mo., while living in Honolulu, racked up $24,000 in travel expenses on the government's dime. The agency spent millions more on virtual employees during the past three years, CNN said.
The Veterans Affairs Department held 948 conferences -- about one per day -- attended by 50 or more employees between January 2009 and June 2012, according to a contract notice posted Friday on the Federal Business Opportunities website seeking outside help analyzing the department's conference planning and spending practices after VA Secretary Eric Shinseki ordered a comprehensive review.
In an Aug. 16 letter to Shinseki, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, pointed out that W. Todd Grams, the department's chief financial officer, disclosed at a Nov. 15, 2011, hearing that VA's conference spending totaled "a little more than $100 million" in fiscal 2011 and $92 million in 2009.
