GSA cancels mental health contract following investigation

The General Services Administration is canceling a contract for mental health and counseling services for U.S. troops that was awarded to a weapon systems and technology company, a GSA spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday. The contract also may have been influenced by a subcontractor.

GSA has reviewed the contract and will let it expire in early August rather than exercise an option to renew, said agency spokeswoman Mary Alice Johnson. The contract was awarded to Titan Corp. in August 2002, and calls upon the firm to provide employee assistance program services to uniformed military members and their families.

Titan, which has an extensive history building and managing information technology systems for the government, has no obvious experience in mental health and counseling services, critics say. Titan hired Ceridian Corp., a human resources services firm, as a subcontractor, but Ceridian also has limited experience in providing counseling services to the government, company officials have acknowledged.

The contract sparked protests from mental health services firms who said it was improper to award work to a company without the necessary expertise to perform the job. GSA also made the award as a task order, worth $229 million, under an existing contract set aside for procuring information technology, on the grounds that some counseling services would be delivered over the Internet.

The contract is one of many the GSA Inspector General has reviewed as part of a nationwide investigation of GSA contracting practices. It focuses on GSA's Federal Technology Service, a division that administers technology contracts for other agencies for a fee. The inspector general and press reports have found that FTS has often awarded work not related to technology and that the agency has directed awards to preferred companies. An FTS regional office in Denver awarded the mental health contract.

Upon further review of the award, and after the IG's examination, GSA "determined that it's in the best of interest of the government to divide the work into two pieces-[information technology] services and counseling services," Johnson said. "FTS is developing an acquisition plan that will divide the work while ensuring continuous, uninterrupted service to the customer," she said.

GSA spokeswoman Johnson could provide no details about the plan and when it might be released. It was unclear whether FTS would handle the technology and counseling portions, but given that the IG has criticized FTS for stepping outside its jurisdiction, sources following the matter questioned whether the agency would have standing to award a new counseling contract.

The contract drew fire last year after it was learned that an employee from the subcontractor, Ceridian, may have written significant portions of the deal. A draft copy of the request for proposals, detailing the specific requirements contractors that must meet, appears to have been at least partially written by a Ceridian employee. The file properties of the Microsoft Word electronic document, obtained by Government Executive, list as the author a person whose name matches that of a senior official in Ceridian's public sector division.

Other details in the electronic document indicate that it was sent via e-mail to at least one other Ceridian employee with a subject line stating it was a draft request for proposals. But the document begins with a formal heading indicating it is being issued by FTS. The document also features an order numbering system routinely used by GSA when putting work up for bid. Letting a potential contractor write contract requirements could violate federal law.

The revelations of improper contracting at FTS-which the inspector general has found affect hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds-have prompted action by GSA's senior leaders. Johnson emphasized that the decision to discontinue the mental health contract reflected a renewed discipline for following contracting procedures. This week, GSA created an acquisition policy office, which will be responsible for ensuring compliance with federal contracting rules, fostering full and open competition for contracts, and strengthening accountability in contracting.

"We have challenged the FTS national and regional organizations…to continue to identify the weaknesses and aggressively root out contracting irregularities," Johnson said. "We are committed to getting it right, as long as it takes."

She said that when FTS made the decision last year to award the contract to a technology company, it was based on the best information officials had at the time. "Contracting is a complex, highly specialized discipline," she said. "It often involves making a judgment call," and at the time, she said, officials judged it proper to use a technology contract for the work.