Source: The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland)
This fall, the federal government finished improvements to Firstgov, its Internet sales portal, which directs users to more than 100 web sites hawking items to the public – from archived American folk music recordings to Lamborghinis once driven by drug lords.
Each federal agency’s links direct users to different sites, some run by contractors on behalf of the government, others by the agency itself. Some offer an easy-to-use online shopping cart, others require the user to print and fax an order form. Still others require participation in an online auction.
While Bid4Assets handles the U.S. Marshals Service’s luxury goods, govliquidation.com handles the Defense Department‘s surplus. A lot of it is less than glamorous. Govliquidation’s warehouse at Fort Meade is the last stop for most of the military’s expired technology in Maryland. The fluorescent-lit complex makes the cubicle-size computers, camcorders the size of family Bibles and outdated medical equipment seem even drabber. But among the rubble are some finds: an organ from the base’s chapel; china from the office of the secretary of defense; silver serving trays from the Navy; an impressive soundboard for concerts; used fatigues; a Heidelberg press; and an automobile diagnostic machine.
Christopher Fornecker, chief technology officer at the General Services Administration (GSA), said there are no plans to build a one-size-fits-all “Gbay.” “We want the sites to be linked together, but not totally consolidated,” he said. “We’d like to build centers that specialize in certain product lines or types of property, but we’re not going to build one uber-system in the future.”