The General Services Administration has spent about $1.8 billion of the $5 billion it was allotted in the recovery act to modernize government buildings, Assistant Commissioner Bill Guerin tells us.
In total, the recovery act funds more than quadrupled the budget of GSA’s public building service, so its no wonder that Guerin, who has headed the PBS Recovery Act Program Management Office since the funds were awarded, is a finalist for the 2011 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal, an honor presented yearly by the Partnership for Public Service.
“We typically program between $1 billion to $1.5 billion per year, so these funds were a major increase in what we do,” Guerin said, “but with a focused program office and an internal infrastructure that worked through the stovepipes and difficulties that came up we have been able to do it successfully.”
Guerin says the bulk of the money expected to be spent by the end of the 2012 calendar year with some of the larger projects, including GSA’s headquarter renovation, stretching out for three or four more years.
And we had to joke with Guerin about his semi-famous name – he shares it with a recently retired professional hockey player.
“The best part was when people Googled my name only things about him came up, so no one could ever find me,” Guerin said.
