GAO urges GSA to assess telecom transition disruptions for six agencies

The Government Accountability Office, in report GAO-26-107919, recommended that the Administrator of the General Services Administration ensure the Federal Acquisition Service's ASD conducts post-transition assessments for at least six agencies that completed migration to the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract. The assessment must determine whether any agency experienced service disruptions and evaluate the effectiveness of its mitigation and contingency plans. GSA has marked the recommendation as open.

The Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Homeland Security, Interior, and Transportation missed GSA's September 2022 revised deadline by more than three years, leading to extensions of legacy Networx contracts through May 31 2026. Billing data show a 206 percent aggregate price increase from February to March 2025, with agency increases ranging from 138 percent (Agriculture) to 365 percent (Interior).

GAO identified 21 factors contributing to the delays; the most common were vendor performance issues, COVID-19-related supply-chain and staffing disruptions, and legacy-technology challenges. Only three of the six agencies mitigated risks for more than half of the cited factors, and risk-mitigation documentation was inconsistent regarding final-deadline service-disruption risks.

Because GSA does not receive notification when a replacement service is in place before an expiring legacy service is disconnected, it cannot confirm whether any agency suffered a disruption. GAO notes that without that information, GSA lacks key data to inform the upcoming follow-on to EIS and to prevent excess costs and further delays.

The open recommendation obligates GSA to complete the assessments before the May 31 2026 final deadline, providing evidence on disruption occurrence, impact, and mitigation effectiveness, and thereby supporting more reliable future telecommunications transitions.