The Trump administration’s procurement chief has vowed to persist with a Doge-inspired pricing squeeze on technology groups and government suppliers, after some of the US’s largest corporations complained to the White House about his aggressive approach to cost-cutting.
Josh Gruenbaum, a former investment banker and director at KKR who runs the powerful Federal Acquisition Service, has overseen a months-long review of multibillion-dollar deals with software providers and consultancies, convincing companies including Booz Allen Hamilton, Google and Oracle to offer steep discounts on services.
But Gruenbaum’s sometimes brusque approach — demanding that the likes of Microsoft, Amazon and Uber identify savings or face the possible cancellation of lucrative contracts — has sent shockwaves through the tech and consultancy industries.
The General Services Administration, which houses the FAS, claims the procurement review has resulted in more than $52bn in savings, of which about $12bn comes from consulting contracts. The total figure accounts for more than a quarter of the purported savings by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).
While Gruenbaum and former acting GSA administrator Stephen Ehikian are not officially part of Doge, they have been closely aligned with the initiative run by Elon Musk before his public fallout with the president.
Lambert here: Who the heck even knows what “officially part of Doge” means?
In his interview [with the FT], Gruenbaum said he had joined government in part because he was inspired by Doge’s mission, and added that agencies, including the GSA, were now “operating with the lens of Doge”.
“Doge became what it was supposed to become, which is like an ethos and a way of life, right?” he said.
Add new comment