Chris Bennethum Resigns at GSA, GSA FAS/AAS Feeling Adrift with No HCA
GSA National Service Model in Danger
Chris Bennethum, the General Services Administration Federal Acquisition Services, Assisted Acquisition Services Head of Contracting Activity has announced his resignation to employees. It is not clear if he is resigning immediately or if he "hit the button."
Chris was one of the architects behind last year's massive reorganization of AAS, switching from a regional model of support to a national FEDSIM model based on clients, not location.
Ironically, this switch may doom the continued existence of GSA AAS because of the Return to Office order and most all of the employees work remotely, many in locations where there are no offices. 1102s are scrambling to return to former agencies they left to come to GSA. And why did they come to GSA, many long before COVID? Because GSA had telework and their agency did not.
GSA AAS processed an estimated $4B+ in contracts/contract actions for other agencies last year as part of multi-year interagency agreements. If as many 1102s jump ship there as feared, these contracts will have to be sent back to host agencies that came to GSA to begin with because the agencies did not have the capacity to award/manage the contracts in house.
Source: GSA Management Employee
Disclaimer: I retired from GSA AAS last June partly because I had a sense a certain person was going to win election and i was not going to be a party to it or deal with the expected chaos. I specifically took a job with GSA AAS in July 2014 because they offered 4-day a week telework when my current agency offered none, and I needed it for family medical reasons.