The agency, which had about 12,000 employees at the beginning of the Trump administration, functioned as a main target of its campaign to reduce fraud, waste and abuse in the federal government
Hundreds of federal employees who have lost their jobs in the Trump administration cost cuts offensive are now being invited to return to work.
The administration of general services (GSA in the acronym in English) gave a deadline until the end of this week to employees, who generated government work spaces, to accept or refuse the reintegration, according to an internal memorandum obtained by the Associated Press news agency.
Those who accept should be reported to service on October 6, after a seven-month paid holidays, during which GSA, in some cases, accumulated high costs-passed on to taxpayers-to maintain dozens of property, whose lease contracts were scheduled to be canceled or expired.
“After all, the result was that the agency was fractured and underdining,” said Chad Becker, a former GSA real estate employee. “They didn’t have the people needed to perform basic functions,” he said.
Becker, who represents owners with government leases at Arco Real Estate Solutions, said GSA was in “screening” mode for months.
Although these employees did not attend work, they should be paid by the end of this month. GSA representatives did not answer detailed questions about the work of return to work, which the agency issued on Friday. They also refused to discuss the number of agency employees, personnel decisions or the potential excessive costs generated by reversing the termination plans of lease agreements.
“GSA’s leadership team has reviewed workforce actions and is making adjustments to the best interest of agencies and customers we serve and US taxpayers,” an agency spokesman said.
Democrats attacked the indiscriminate approach of Trump administration to cut costs and jobs. Deputy Greg Stanton of Arizona, the main democrat in the subcommittee that supervises GSA, told AP that there is no evidence that the reductions in the agency “brought any economy.” “This created expensive confusion as it undermined the very services on which taxpayers depend,” he said.
The agency, which had about 12,000 employees at the beginning of the Trump administration, functioned as a main target of its campaign to reduce fraud, waste and abuse in the federal government.
A small group of trusted assistants of Tesla Elon Musk’s businessman and CEO, incorporated at GSA headquarters, sometimes sleeping in campaign beds on the sixth floor of the agency, led plans to abruptly cancel almost half of the 7,500 contracts in the federal portfolio.
Doge also wanted GSA to sell hundreds of federal property buildings to generate thousands of millions of dollars in economies. GSA began by sending more than 800 contract cancellation notices to the owners, in many cases without informing government tenants.
The agency has also published a list of hundreds of government buildings that have been selling. Doge’s massive male jobs produced few economies. The reaction to GSA portfolio disposal was fast, and both initiatives were reduced. More than 480 contracts planned for termination by the doge have been spared since then.
These leases were for offices spread across the country, occupied by agencies such as IRS, social security administration and food and medicine administration.
Doge once booked that only lease cancellations would save nearly $ 460 million, since then reduced this estimate to $ 140 million by the end of July, according to Becker, GSA’s former real estate officer.
However, GSA started massive job cuts. And reduced headquarters by 79%, portfolio managers by 65%and 35%facilities managers, according to a federal officer informed about the situation.
As a result of the internal turmoil, 131 leases expired without the government to really vacate the properties, the same source said.
The situation exposed the agencies to high fees, because the owners of real estate failed to rent these spaces to other tenants.
