Doan forced to step down from GSA post

Doan’s resignation is effective April 30, a GSA spokeswoman told GovPro.com. GSA Deputy Administrator David Bibb will become the acting administrator.

Doan’s tenure has been marked by allegations that she abused her authority. On March 28, 2007, Doan appeared before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to answer allegations that she tried to steer a $20,000 no-bid contract to a longtime business friend and that Doan held a teleconference from GSA headquarters asking agency officials how the GSA could help fellow Republican candidates in upcoming elections—a violation of the Hatch Act.

Doan also was bloodied by her jousts with GSA Inspector General Brian Miller as well as by her alleged intervention in negotiations for a major IT contract with Sun Microsystems. Miller testified that Doan and her top staff reversed the judgment of three career contract officers and made pricing concessions to Sun that are costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.

Doan, testifying March 28, said that she “had no involvement in the negotiation with Sun Microsystems” and that the GSA contracting officer who inked the Sun deal “did a great job and negotiated a great deal for American taxpayers.”

On June 13, 2007, U.S. Rep Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, invited Doan back to Capitol Hill to answer allegations that she lied during the March 28, 2007, hearing and allegations that she tried to bully federal employees who cooperated with the committee’s investigation into her possible misconduct. U.S. Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., defended Doan during both committee hearings and called the June 13 hearing “a gross misuse of committee resources.”

“The majority says they’re concerned about retaliation against government officials who have cooperated with investigators. But no such retaliation ever occurred,” Davis said during the June 13 hearing. “The real retaliation here is against an entrepreneurial African-American woman who—stop the presses—supports the administration that appointed her and is paying the price for trying to make her organization a better, more efficient and effective place.”

A message left with the White House regarding Doan’s resignation was not immediately returned.

In a statement, the GSA praised Doan for “capably manag[ing] GSA’s $17 billion budget and 12,000 employees and leav[ing] the agency with employee morale at an all time highpoint, according to the most recent OPM survey.”

“It has been a great privilege to serve our nation and a great president,” Doan said in the GSA statement. “The past 22 months have been filled with accomplishments: Together, we have regained our clean audit opinion, restored fiscal discipline, re-tooled our ability to respond to emergencies, rekindled entrepreneurial energies, reduced bureaucratic barriers to small companies to get a GSA Schedule, ignited a building boom at our nation's ports of entries, boldly led the nation in an aggressive telework initiative and improved employee morale so that we were selected as one of the best places to work in the federal government. These accomplishments are made even more enjoyable by the fact that there were lots of people who told us they could never be done. I have great faith in the abilities of GSA’s dedicated team.”