Federal Office Space

Increased Ownership Would Result in Significant Savings Gao ID: GGD-90-11 December 22, 1989

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the General Services Administration's (GSA) efforts to reduce office space leasing costs by increasing government-owned office space.

GAO found that: (1) 43 proposed construction projects could save $12 billion in leasing costs over a 30-year period; (2) mandated rent restrictions on government-owned property limit Federal Building Fund (FBF) revenues for capital investment and a budgetary bias towards leasing will continue to restrict the availability of construction capital; (3) Congress directed GSA to finance office construction by borrowing capital funds, but financing costs were higher than those incurred from financing through rent revenues; (4) GSA did not develop a long-term plan for achieving government-ownership goals; and (5) GSA budgeting did not separate capital components from operating expenses or identify the long-term benefits associated with capital investment.

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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