GSA Real Property Disposal Procedures and Controls of Related Personal Property

The Administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA) is charged with promoting maximum use of excess real property by executive agencies and disposing of property no longer required by federal agencies. The Administrator has the authority to decide how federal excess and surplus real property will be managed. He has delegated the authority to a Commissioner who in turn has delegated it to the regional administrators. A review was made of these procedures at three GSA regions, and records and procedures at other federal agencies were also reviewed to determine whether property had been properly accounted for.

Several problems arise from the GSA lack of control of related personal property. First, excess personal property is not reported to the appropriate GSA property division for inventory control and reporting to other federal agencies for screening of possible government needs. Second, apparently much of the property GSA transfers to local organizations is not needed for their purposes. Third, the lack of accurate inventories of transferred-related personal property and the obligation to identify and check its use greatly complicates the compliance surveys of the sponsoring Federal agencies. Any undue delay in the property disposal adds to the cost of protection and maintenance, increases the risk of vandalism and deterioration, and compounds the pressures from competing parties for the property. In one region, the delays were excessive on a high proportion of disposals examined. The same region did not maintain a complete record of all real property it conveyed to other federal agencies for transfer to local public agencies for public benefit uses.

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: No director on record Team: No team on record Phone: No phone on record