National Science Foundation

GAO believes that the choice of Arlington, Virginia, as the site for the National Science Foundation's new headquarters will allow the Foundation to fulfill its role in national science policy. Although the new building is located outside downtown Washington, D.C., this site (1) will allow employees who are now scattered among several locations to consolidate in one building; (2) will provide superior working conditions; (3) will be convenient to other government offices and libraries throughout the city via an adjacent subway stop; and (4) is surrounded by many amenities, including a hotel, shops, and restaurants. In GAO's view, the General Services Administration and the Foundation followed a reasonable and systematic approach in choosing the Arlington building, which is about $9 less per square foot than alternatives in the District of Columbia--a savings to the government of $81 million over the course of a 20-year lease. The Foundation contends that it cannot move to Arlington because Congress has not appropriated its $16 million relocation expense request for fiscal year 1993, a move GAO believes that Congress should make.

GAO found that: (1) over 20 years, the proposed site will cost the government about $81 million less than leasing comparable space in the District; (2) the proposed site will also improve current employee working conditions; (3) GSA estimates that it could lose about $15 million in rental costs, construction costs, and loans if NSF does not move to the proposed site; (4) the NSF governing board expressed concerns that the relocation would significantly diminish the NSF role in the science and technology process, since NSF would no longer be located near the universities and government agencies with which it interacts and some NSF staff will be inconvenienced in local travel; (5) although NSF did not concur with the GSA relocation decision, GSA properly handled NSF objections to the move; (6) the White House and the Office of Management and Budget reviewed NSF objections and concurred with the GSA decision; and (7) GSA properly followed procedures in selecting the Arlington site, and the evaluation panel developed appropriate factors to consider, assigned reasonable weights to those criteria, and scored offers appropriately.

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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