Alaska Regional Office Needs To Improve Personal Property Management

GAO conducted a followup review of an earlier report which concluded that replaced and excess personal property at Alaska's Denali National Park and Preserve had not been reported to the General Services Administration (GSA) in a timely manner and had not been protected from damage and deterioration, as required by Federal regulations. In this report, GAO examined these problems to determine: (1) the amount of replaced and excess personal property at the Park; (2) whether these problems exist at other parks in Alaska; and (3) the reasons why the property was not handled properly.

GAO found that over 20 motorized vehicles were parked outdoors in the Park's maintenance yard in various states of disrepair. The acquisition cost of these vehicles was approximately $134,000, yet Park officials waited from several days to 18 months before reporting the items to the Alaska regional office. By the time the regional office reported the items to GSA, from 19 to 37 months had elapsed. An official stated that the situation at Denali was not unique to the region and that replaced and excess personal property was also located in Alaska's national parks. Part of the problem is that the regional office does not have an accurate inventory of personal property in Alaska's national parks. Furthermore, property management is not a high priority in the Alaska regional office.

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.

Director: Brian P. Crowley Team: General Accounting Office: Community and Economic Development Division Phone: (202) 512-9450