Despite a target deadline of March 31 for Federal agencies to complete half of their transitions to the General Services Administration’s Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) communications services contract, less than 25 percent of Federal agencies hit that mark, according to data provided by GSA.
According to information updated by GSA through August, the Executive Office of the President and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp have completed their transitions to EIS, along with 32 small agencies.
Another 50 agencies – including 12 of the 24 Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act agencies – achieved the 50 percent target by the deadline, according to GSA’s monthly EIS Transition Progress Tracking Report for August.
However, more than 200 agencies are still operating under the expiring Washington Interagency Telecommunications System (WITS3) and GSA Regional Local Service contracts, GSA said. Initially set to expire on or before May 2020, GSA extended those expiring contracts until May 2023, and agencies were tasked with meeting a series of transition-related dates:
- By Mar. 31, 2021, 50 percent of agencies’ telecom inventory must be off current contracts and moved to EIS;
- By Mar. 31, 2022, 90 percent of agencies’ telecom inventory must be off current contracts and moved to EIS; and
- By Sept. 30, 2022, 100 percent of agencies’ telecom inventory must be off current contracts and moved to EIS.
The target date for awarding all EIS task orders was Sept. 30, 2019. Currently, about 70 percent of all expected task orders have been awarded. Among CFO Act agencies, only six have task orders outstanding, GSA reported.
Specifically, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency have not awarded a single EIS task order. The Energy Department has also not started the process of awarding the two task orders it has planned. The Department of Justice awarded one out of two EIS task orders, while Homeland Security awarded only three of 14 outstanding task orders.
The impact of progress by the CFO Act agencies will carry through to their grading on the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s FITARA Scorecard, which includes EIS transition as one of several grading categories of their IT-related operations.
