A plan under consideration by the Office of Management and Budget to subsidize federal employee purchase of mobile devices for work use would require a change in appropriations law, said Kathleen Turco, head of the General Services Administration's office of governmentwide policy.

"I think it's interesting," she said of the plan, announced by Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra during a Feb. 25 industry event in North Bethesda, Md.  

"I think things are different in the federal government. I think if you need a laptop, you have one. If you need a BlackBerry, you have one. And if you don't--you don't," Turco said while likewise speaking at an industry event, a March 3 lunch held by the Independent Telecommunications Pioneer Association, in Washington, D.C.

Kundra's objective isn't impossible, Turco added. "I'm not saying, in the future--if there's another way to do this, we should. I'm just not a--I'm just a hardcore budget person," Turco said. A high-ranking Army official also recently suggested the military could subsidize mobile device purchases by soldiers.

Before becoming head of OGP, Turco had spent nearly eight years, starting in August 2002, as the GSA chief financial officer.

"Many people came up to me very quietly, wanting to know if I was being punished," Turco said of her position change.

Turco said she's renovating and realigning OGP. Over the past couple years, OGP's function as a policy shop has been lost, Turco said.

Among the changes she is implementing is speeding up processing of new Federal Acquisition Regulation changes, she added. GSA is chair of the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and is a part of the FAR Council.

"We had certain procurement analysts just loaded up and others were just not working. They were told they had to stay in their lane--I mean, how crazy is that?" Turco said.

In February, GSA, OMB, NASA and the Defense Department held a meeting--GSA called it a "slam"--on ways to speed up the process, which Turco said is still mainly done on paper.

"We're looking at the case management process and a couple of key steps in there," she added.

For more:
- download Turco's presentation slides from the March ITPA lunch (.pdf)

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