Tangherlini touts GSA's ability to boost efficiency
In a blog post, the newly-confirmed administrator says president's push for better management means new opportunities to help other agencies.
GSA's newly confirmed permanent administrator is vowing to redouble the agency's efforts to bring its resources and expertise to bear for partner agencies in building a smarter, more efficient government.
In a July 10 post on the GSA Blog, agency administrator Dan Tangherlini said he had attended a key July 8 meeting with White House cabinet and senior officials to discuss how to make the federal government more efficient and effective during President Barack Obama's second term.
During that meeting Obama said he planned to make innovation in government management a second-term priority, and tapped Sylvia Mathews Burwell, director of the Office of Management and Budget, to lead the effort.
Obama also gave agency leaders the goal of developing an "aggressive management agenda" to harness technology to bring innovations in government services to the public. As examples of first-term innovations, he cited the open-data initiative, the ongoing effort to reduce federal data center redundancies, and the use of satellite and Internet technologies aid relief efforts after natural disasters.
In his July 10 post, Tangherlini said GSA is in a unique position to help produce efficiencies and value for agencies in acquisition, real estate and technology services.
In the acquisition arena, he said, federal agencies have saved more than $300 million though GSA's Strategic Sourcing Initiative since the program began in 2010. Additionally, he said, FedRAMP, the single security authorization for cloud technologies for all participating agencies, has reduced costs, time and staff once needed to conduct redundant security assessments.
"In the coming months, we will be redoubling our efforts to demonstrate to our partner agencies how GSA's existing resources and expertise can support the president's management goals and allow them to focus their staff and their funding on their important missions," Tangherlini said.
"GSA knows how to use the size and the scope of the federal government to drive down costs, increase collaboration and efficiency. We are committed to building the kind of responsive and effective government that president Obama has challenged us to create."