Repairs and Alterations of Public Buildings by General Services Administration--Better Congressional Oversight and Control Is Possible

From 1961 through 1977, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation (Public Works Committees) had approved 276 prospectuses for major repairs and alterations projects. The General Services Administration (GSA), which manages a major repairs and alterations program for public buildings, must obtain approval from the Public Works Committees for each project estimated to cost over $500,000.

For several years backlog of major repairs and alterations has been about $1 billion. In the past 4 years, GSA has spent only about 45 to 50 percent of repair funds on large projects. Moreover, a substantial amount was spent for projects not specifically identified in any of the recent work programs supporting the agency's annual request for repair funds. GSA and the Public Works Committees seem to have a significant misunderstanding regarding the nature and scope of repair work requiring the Committees' approval. GSA has spent over $1 million on each of a number of public buildings without having requested approval of the Committees, and has used the authority of approvals to do work that was not described in the scope approved.

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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