By Rachel Stevens
Federal News Radio

The Coalition for Government Procurement recommends the Defense Department increase its use of the General Services Administration to reduce acquisition costs.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the Coalition says DoD has numerous overlapping and redundant contracts, which “increase costs to both industry and the government.”

CGP, an industry association, says DoD should increase their use of GSA procurement programs instead of creating new contracts independently.

DoD and GSA have a rocky relationship for a while. At one point, DoD was spending up to $150 million annually on GSA fees alone. This led DoD to begin pursuing contracts independently.

Several other agencies followed suit. The result has been serious damage to GSA’s bottom line: from 2000 to 2009, GSA’s sales almost doubled to

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