THURSDAY, AUGUST 17, 2000
GAO and GSA Critique
Crawford Group took out full-page ad in Roll Call this week criticizing General Accounting Office (GAO) for report earlier this year that concluded that General Services Administration (GSA) estimates of FTS 2001 revenue were reasonable. Ad said report assumed that all 4 of contracts options would be exercised but base period of contract runs only 4 years. It said that if govt. didn’t buy $750 million in services from vendors WorldCom or Sprint by end of base contract period, balance of minimum guarantee that hadn’t been used would become balloon payment that would be due at all at once. (Contract carries minimum revenue guarantee of $750 million for each of those vendors.) "We feel certain that we will be able to meet the minimum revenue guarantee as stated in the FTS 2001 contract," Sprint spokesman said. "This contract offers extremely attractive prices and they get better as the contract progress." Crawford Group Pres. Lisa Crawford, who worked on FTS 2000 contract for AT&T, said she didn’t place ad on behalf of particular client but because of her own interest in issue. Referring to "report and its failure to kind of hit the nail on the head," she said ad was placed to refocus discussion on those contract issues.