All about the acting commissioner of FAS

By Dorothy Ramienski
Internet Editor
FederalNewsRadio

Tyree Varnado has been the acting commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Services for about two weeks now.

He replaced Jim Williams, who is now acting Administrator.

FederalNewsRadio sat down on Thursday with Varnado, whose appointment has been widely praised in part because he’s not from “Inside the Beltway”.

On Thursday’s Daily Debrief, host Christopher Dorobek asked Varnado about his goals — and Varnado says he plans to build on the momentum created by his predecessor.

That is to start trying to be leaders in green government — that’s one of our number one priorities. We need to also be very successful in the pending presidential transition. . . . Another thing we need to do is to continue to focus on our customers.

Varnado says he understands customer service well, having come from the financial sector.

I tend to really concentrate on the bottom line, but I’ve learned that if we take care of our customers — if we understand their requirements, their mission — and we provide the solutions that they need then we, in turn, will be successful.

As for coming from outside of Washington, Varnado says this gives him a different perspective, which allows him to see the customer differently.

Here in the Beltway, I think, when we talk customer, we’re talking about those high-level decision makers — but when you come from the region, you’re talking about the end-user. You get to hear what’s important to them.

Varnado says this unique perspective could help when it comes to rebuilding relationships with customers.

GSA had been bogged down in the past when it came to perfection, which some say hurt their dealings with others.

Now, however, the new acting FAS commissioner says he’s going to change that.

There was a period where we were internally focused. Now we’ve gotten past that and we’re starting to look out to our customers in an external way to make sure that we explain to them that, whatever their requirements are, GSA is poised with the appropriate professional acquisition executives ready to help them do their jobs.

Then comes the topic of schedules. Recently, the Multiple Awards Schedule Panel proposed getting rid of the price reduction clause.

Varnado says he feels the Panel has been doing good work and is waiting for their official recommendation before making a decision, “We’ve heard the concerns and it’s something that we are familiar with and are looking to come up with a solution.”

Oversight is another topic that many managers have had to deal with in both the public and private sector. Varnado is no exception and says he is starting to build a relationship with the GSA IG.

We know that that’s critical because . . . the balance is important, but we welcome the oversight because I think that, in the end, that improves the product and the services that we provide to our customers. That’s our ultimate mission.

Another mission at the GSA involves contracts and Alliant and Alliant Small Business have gotten a lot of attention this year. Varnado says GSA is still on track with those and will attempt to make awards for Alliant Small Business this December.

Everything is proceeding very well. The initial information that I received [is] that it’s going to happen and we’ll be very happy once we get that out to our customers to start [the] transition.

Overall, Varnado says heading FAS involves looking both backward and forward.

I think to be successful going forward, you have to look at the lessons learned and that court ruling did point out some things that we need to be aware of as we proceed into the future. So, we’re going to take that. We’re going to learn from it and try to move forward — but not spend a lot of time looking backwards because our focus has to be looking forward on what we can do to improve our products and services.

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On the Web:

GSA – FAS

GSA – Tyree Varnado Biography

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