What is General Services Administration Fraud?

The General Services Administration, or GSA, is an independent agency of the U.S. government. This means that it is not headed by a cabinet secretary, but it is still part of one of the branches of government. The GSA functions to provide the regular government agencies with support such as transportation, offices, and other management services. When people commit fraud against the GSA, they are also committing fraud against the U.S. government.

The GSA began in 1949 to help streamline the administrative workings of the government. Now, it has more than 12,000 employees and an operating budget of about $26 billion. This allows the GSA to provide the government with the products, communication services, etc. that it needs.

Additionally, the General Services Administration keeps a list of vendors called the GSA schedule, which contains a list of companies that have been approved by this administrative agency to serve other government agencies. To be included in this list, companies must follow certain legal guidelines established by the GSA.

When a vendor is part of the GSA schedule, it must allow the government access to the same prices, discounts, and other specials as it provides to commercial companies. However, should the vendor force the government to pay higher rates or not offer them a discount, they can be charged with fraud. The main types of GSA fraud include:

• Not providing the government with "best pricing" given to commercial companies
• Not giving discounts or price reductions to the government that are given to other companies
• Failure to comply with the Trade Agreements Act

The government cannot regulate every single vendor to make sure that they are complying with the GSA schedule. Thus, the General Services Administration relies on regular citizens to catch companies who are committing fraud and take them to court. This is called Qui Tam law. If you are a whistleblower who exposes GSA fraud, you may be entitled to part of the recompense awarded to the government.

If you suspect fraud against the government, you should contact an experienced Qui Tam attorney from Tycko & Zavareei, LLP, today.