Defense Printing Service

Relocation of the Southeast Area Headquarters Gao ID: NSIAD-92-290 August 11, 1992

An April 1992 memorandum, signed by the Defense Printing Service's Executive Director, said that the Southeast Area headquarters could be shifted from Charleston, South Carolina, to Norfolk, Virginia, because most of the Southeast Area's facilities, work load, and customers are found in Virginia. In another document, the Defense Printing Service's Management Office said that the relocation would save about $30,000 annually in travel expenses to Norfolk. The Management Office, however, could not provide GAO with data supporting its decision. In particular, it could not justify its conclusion that the Southeast Area headquarters personnel could do their jobs better if they moved to Norfolk. The Management Office also had not done a cost analysis to see whether the relocation would yield savings. Without analysis of these issues, there is no way of knowing whether the relocation will produce more efficient and cost-effective operations.

GAO found that: (1) the DPS Management Office could not provide data to support its decision to relocate the Southeast Area headquarters functions; (2) Southeast Area headquarters personnel were opposed to the relocation decision and most of the personnel indicated that they would not relocate due to personal hardships; (3) Southeast Area headquarters personnel disagreed with the DPS Management Office's position that they could perform their work more effectively if they moved to Norfolk, since they believed they were able to perform their work adequately in Charleston using telephones, facsimile machines and computer modems; (4) available cost data show that the relocation of the Southeast Area headquarters functions to Norfolk may not result in significant savings; (5) Southeast Area headquarters personnel estimated that the relocation would save considerably less in travel costs than estimated; and (6) the DPS Management Office had not performed a cost analysis to determine whether the relocation would result in savings and DPS could not reasonably ensure that the relocation would result in more efficient and cost-effective operations.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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