| Following the lead of commercial auctioneers Priceline.com and eBay, the federal government has plunged into the world of online auctions for buying goods and selling surplus items.
In two separate events last month, government officials kicked off a project for reverse online auctions like those popularized on Priceline and initiated plans for a central eBay-like auction portal for selling excess government-owned assets such as cars and office equipment.
The auction projects represent what could be a new era for federal procurement, which for years has been plagued by excessive bureaucracy and inefficiency. | 
