Federal Real Property
Better Governmentwide Data Needed for Strategic Decisionmaking Gao ID: GAO-02-342 April 16, 2002For 50 years, the General Services Administration (GSA) has maintained the federal government's real property assets, including military installations, office buildings, laboratories, courthouses, postal facilities, and embassies. Separately, the Department of the Treasury produces annual financial information on these assets. GSA's worldwide inventory is the only central source of detailed information on on the government's real property inventory, such as addresses, square footage, acquisition dates, and property type. GAO found that GSA's inventory contains unreliable data. The inventory lacks key data for budgeting and strategic management, such as space utilization, facility condition, historical significance, security, and facility age. Poor communication between GSA and the reporting agencies, technical difficulties with agency data, and resource constraints contributed to the problems. GSA lacks the authority to require agencies to submit data and has been pursuing real property reform legislation. The agency has also begun to improve the effectiveness of the worldwide inventory as a decisionmaking tool. With OMB's concurrence, GSA suspended the reporting process for fiscal year 2001 and plans to develop an enhanced database with real-time capabilities to complement the yearly inventory reports.
RecommendationsOur 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: Team: Phone:GAO-02-342, Federal Real Property: Better Governmentwide Data Needed for Strategic Decisionmaking
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United States General Accounting Office:
GAO:
Report to Congressional Requesters:
April 2002:
Federal Real Property:
Better Governmentwide Data Needed for Strategic Decisionmaking:
GA0-02-342:
GAO Highlights:
Highlights of GAO-02-342, a report to the Subcommittee on Economic
Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management, House of
Representatives.
Why GAO Did This Study:
The government owns hundreds of thousands of real property assets
worth hundreds of billions of dollars. The General Services
Administration (GSA) maintains a database on these assets commonly
referred to as the worldwide inventory. Quality data are critical if
decisionmakers are to strategically manage these real property assets.
GAO was asked to assess the reliability and usefulness of the
worldwide inventory and to determine what actions, if any, may be
needed to make it a more useful tool.
What GAO Found:
GSA's worldwide inventory of federal real property contained data that
were unreliable and of limited usefulness. Given this, decisionmakers
such as Congress and OMB do not have access to quality data on what
real property assets the government owns; their value; whether the
assets are being used efficiently; and what overall costs are involved
in preserving, protecting, and investing in them.
* Worldwide inventory data for fiscal year 2000 were not current for
12 of 31 real property-holding agencies. In fact, 9 agencies' data had
not been updated since before fiscal year 1997.
* The inventory did not contain certain key data”such as data related
to space utilization, facility condition, historical significance,
security, and facility age”that would be useful for budgeting and
strategically managing these assets.
* Several factors contributed to the problems, including poor
communication between GSA and the agencies, technical difficulties
with agency data, resource constraints, and GSA's lack of specific
statutory authority to require agencies to submit data.
GSA recognizes the problems and has actions under way to help resolve
them, such as developing real-time database capabilities and proposing
legislation to improve the inventory. Given past problems GSA has
experienced and the many players involved with this effort, a well-
formulated plan for making improvements will be a critical necessity.
Figure: Federal Real Property:
[Refer to PDF for image: Photo array]
Smithsonian Institution Building (Washington, D.C.);
St. Elizabeths Hospital (Washington, D.C.);
L. Mendel Rivers Federal Building, (Charleston, SC);
John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse (Boston, MA).
Source: GAO and GSA.
[End of figure]
What GAO Recommends:
GAO recommends that GSA exercise strong leadership and work with
Congress, OMB, Treasury, and other agencies to develop a cost-
effective strategy for improving the reliability and usefulness of the
worldwide inventory. As part of this strategy, GSA should (1) work
closely with real property-holding agencies to clearly identify
expectations and the process for improvement, (2) establish results-
oriented goals to measure progress and performance, and (3) provide
the key players with an action plan that will guide project
implementation. Congress should consider requiring GSA by law to
maintain an accurate worldwide inventory and requiring real property-
holding agencies to submit reliable data. GSA agreed with the thrust
of this report and its recommendations.
This is a test for developing highlights for a GAO report. The full
report, including GAO's objectives, scope, methodology, and analysis
is available at [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-02-342].
For additional information about the report, contact Bernard Ungar,
(202-512-8387). To provide comments on this test highlights, contact
Keith Fultz (202-512-3200) or email HighlightsTest@gao.gov.
[End of section]
Contents:
Letter:
Results in Brief:
Background:
Worldwide Inventory Is Unreliable and Lacks Certain Key Data:
Actions Needed to Make the Worldwide Inventory A More Useful Tool:
Conclusions:
Recommendations for Executive Action:
Matter for Congressional Consideration:
Agency Comments:
Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology:
Appendix II: Comments from the General Services Administration:
GAO Comments:
Appendix III: Comments from the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense
(Installations and Environment):
Appendix IV: GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments:
GAO Contacts:
Staff Acknowledgments:
Figure:
Figure 1: Worldwide Inventory Reporting History for Owned Real
Property, by Major Reporting Agency (fiscal years 1997 to 2000):
[End of section]
United States General Accounting Office:
Washington, DC 20548:
April 16, 2002
The Honorable Steven C. LaTourette:
Chairman:
The Honorable Jerry Costello:
Ranking Democratic Member:
Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency
Management:
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure:
House of Representatives:
This report responds to your March 13, 2001, request related to the
General Services Administration's (GSA) worldwide inventory of federal
real property. According to GSA's fiscal year 2000 worldwide inventory
report on owned property, over 30 federal agencies own hundreds of
thousands of real property assets worth hundreds of billions of
dollars.[Footnote 1] The federal government's real property assets
include military installations, office buildings, laboratories,
courthouses, postal facilities, and embassies. For about 50 years, GSA
has been maintaining the worldwide inventory. Separately, the
Department of the Treasury (Treasury) annually produces governmentwide
financial information on real property assets. However, the worldwide
inventory GSA maintains is the only central source of more descriptive
data on the makeup of the real property inventory, such as property
address, square footage, acquisition date, and property type. You
requested this work because of the Subcommittee's concern that
decisionmakers in Congress, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB),
and federal agencies may not be equipped with quality data needed to
effectively monitor and assess the acquisition, management, and
disposal of real property assets. In the coming years, quality
information will be a critical tool for addressing a wide range of
significant issues related to real property, including deteriorating
federal facilities, unneeded and underutilized space, and challenges
in protecting people and facilities. As agreed with your offices, our
objectives were to determine (1) whether the worldwide inventory has
reliable and useful data on the government's real property assets and
(2) what actions, if any, may be needed to make the worldwide
inventory a useful tool for strategically managing and overseeing
these assets.
To meet these objectives, we primarily examined GSA's operation of the
worldwide inventory effort. We focused our attention on analyzing the
process whereby data from different sources are compiled into one
database, how the data are validated, and how the agencies communicate
with GSA. To gain an understanding of how the inventory is compiled
and how the key players view its usefulness, we interviewed officials
with GSA's Office of Governmentwide Policy (OGP), the office in GSA
that has responsibility for the inventory. In addition, we interviewed
officials involved with or knowledgeable of the worldwide inventory at
OMB and the four agencies shown by the inventory to have the most
property in terms of building square footage”the Department of Defense
(DOD), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), GSA's Public Buildings
Service (PBS), and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).[Footnote 2] We also
did some limited testing of the completeness of the data in the
worldwide inventory, reviewed the financial data on real property
compiled by Treasury for fiscal year 2000, and obtained information on
real property databases at DOD, VA, PBS, and USPS. We considered
reports issued by others and us on real property-related issues and
reviewed relevant laws, regulations, and proposed legislation. On the
basis of our analysis and discussions with GSA and agency officials,
we identified what actions, if any, were needed to improve the
inventory's usefulness. We did our work between June 2001 and February
2002 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing
standards. More details about our objectives, scope, and methodology
are presented in appendix I. We requested comments on a draft of this
report from GSA, DOD, OMB, Treasury, USPS, and VA. The comments we
received are discussed near the end of this letter, GSA's and DOD's
written comments are included as appendixes II and IA respectively.
Results in Brief:
GSA's worldwide inventory of federal real property contained data that
were unreliable and of limited usefulness. Given this, decisionmakers
such as Congress and OMB do not have access to quality data on what
real property assets the government owns, their value, whether the
assets are being used efficiently, and what overall costs are involved
in preserving, protecting, and investing in them. Worldwide inventory
data for fiscal year 2000 were not current for 12 of 31 real property-
holding agencies. In fact, data for 9 of the agencies had not been
updated since before fiscal year 1997. For the period covering fiscal
years 1997 through 2000, GSA had been able to consistently compile
data for only 5 of the 31 agencies”the Departments of Agriculture and
Commerce, the Army, the Navy, and the Corps of Engineers' civilian
functions. Furthermore, we noted that the inventory did not contain
certain key data”such as data related to space utilization, facility
condition, historical significance, security, and facility age”that
would be useful for budgeting purposes and the strategic management of
these assets. Consequently, GSA's annual worldwide inventory reports
were of minimal value and do not reflect the changing makeup of the
federal real property inventory. Poor communication between GSA and
the reporting agencies, technical difficulties with agency data, and
resource constraints contributed to the problems. GSA officials also
noted that GSA lacks specific statutory authority to require agencies
to submit data Real property data problems were not only isolated to
the worldwide inventory. We also noted that some of the major real
property-holding agencies have faced challenges developing quality
real property data, and financial data on real property in Treasury's
consolidated financial statements have been problematic.
GSA recognizes the problems with the worldwide inventory and has
actions under way to resolve them. We noted that GSA has pursued real
property reform legislation that, among other things, was intended to
improve the worldwide inventory. GSA has also begun a major effort
aimed at improving the effectiveness of the worldwide inventory as a
decisionmaking tool. With OMB's concurrence, GSA suspended the
reporting process for fiscal year 2001 and plans to develop an
enhanced database with real-time capabilities to complement the yearly
inventory reports. Making this effort successful will be a major
challenge for GSA. GSA will have to work across government with the
many real property-holding agencies, Congress, OMB, and Treasury to
identify the types of data that could be collected cost effectively to
promote effective knowledge sharing and strategic, budget, and
management decisionmaking. Given past problems GSA has experienced
with compiling the worldwide inventory on an annual basis and the
challenges associated with developing a more advanced approach, GSA
will have to exercise strong leadership in this endeavor.
We are recommending that GSA work with Congress, OMB, Treasury, and
real property-holding agencies to design and implement a cost-effective
strategy for improving the worldwide inventory. The recommendations
specifically address the need for GSA to (1) work closely with
participating real property-holding agencies to clearly identify
expectations and the process that will be used for making
improvements; (2) establish results-oriented goals and targets to
measure progress and performance; and (3) provide Congress, OMB,
Treasury, and real property-holding agencies with a detailed action
plan that lays out the major tasks to be accomplished with time
frames, estimated costs, and related goals and targets. We are also
asking Congress to consider enacting legislation to require GSA to
maintain an accurate worldwide inventory and requiring real property-
holding agencies to submit reliable data on their real property assets
to GSA. GSA and DOD agreed with the thrust of this report and its
recommendations for executive action. An OMB policy analyst
responsible for GSA and familiar with the worldwide inventory also
agreed with the report's message, and VA's GAO liaison said that VA
would work closely with GSA as it improves the inventory. Treasury and
USPS did not have any comments on the report.
Background:
According to the worldwide inventory, the federal government owns
hundreds of thousands of properties worldwide. The financial
statements of the U.S. government state that the federal government's
real property assets are worth hundreds of billions of dollars. DOD
holds the majority of this property in terms of building square
footage. Other major property-holding agencies include GSA's PBS, VA,
and USPS. The Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of
1949, as amended (Property Act) established GSA to serve as a central
procurement and property management agency for the federal
government.[Footnote 3] GSA's role in real property is twofold. As a
major federal real property manager, GSA's PBS is responsible for
providing office space for most federal agencies and managing over
8,000 buildings that it owns and leases. In addition to directly
providing real property services, GSA, among other things, seeks to
collaborate with other federal real property-holding agencies in
developing guidance that encourages agencies to utilize the best, most
cost-effective management practices.
As part of its central management responsibilities, GSA maintains a
worldwide inventory of federally owned and leased real property. Each
year, GSA produces two worldwide inventory reports”one for property
owned and one for property leased” that summarize data obtained from
over 30 federal real property-holding agencies. According to GSA
guidance, GSA compiles the inventory because the Senate Committee on
Appropriations has requested that the government maintain such data
and Executive Order 12411”a 1983 order that deals with efficient space
utilization”requires that agencies maintain property inventories. In
addition to data on real property contained in the worldwide
inventory, data on the value of federal real property are contained in
the Financial Report of the U.S. Government, issued annually by
Treasury pursuant to the Government Management Reform Act of 1994.
[Footnote 4] Major real property-holding agencies also have data
systems they use to manage their assets and to report on their
holdings in the worldwide inventory and the consolidated financial
statements of the U.S. government.[Footnote 5]
Worldwide Inventory Is Unreliable and Lacks Certain Key Data:
GSA's worldwide inventory of federal real property is the only
governmentwide database of its kind; however, it is unreliable and has
limited usefulness. Data in the inventory for many agencies-12 of 31
in the fiscal year 2000 reporting cycle”were not current because GSA
used data from prior years that had not been updated. For example, VA
data in the fiscal year 2000 report were actually from fiscal year
1995 because, according to GSA officials, the file VA provided did not
have all the required data and could not be used. Further, certain key
data that would be useful for budgeting and strategic decisionmaking”
such as the estimated cost of needed repairs and data on properties
that are candidates for disposal”were not collected. Consequently,
GSA's annual reports on the worldwide inventory were of minimal value
when issued and do not reflect the diverse and constantly changing
nature of the huge federal real property inventory. Simply stated,
decisionmakers do not have access to quality data on what real
property assets the government owns; their value; whether the assets
are being used efficiently; and what overall costs are involved in
preserving, protecting, and investing in them. Problems developing
quality real property data have not been isolated to the worldwide
inventory. We noted that several major real property-holding agencies
that provide input to the worldwide inventory have faced challenges
with developing reliable real property data. Also, financial data on
real property that Treasury compiles have been problematic. On
balance, however, some agencies have been able to develop more
advanced real property data systems.
Each year, GSA expects real property-holding agencies to provide it
with detailed information on the properties that they control,
including land. In reporting to GSA, agencies are expected to follow
GSA's guidance for this effort, which appears in the Code of Federal
Regulations (CFR).[Footnote 6] Data that GSA seeks to collect for the
inventory cover various details about each property, including the
address, square footage, acquisition date, and property type. With
assistance from a database contractor, GSA summarizes the data in
annual published reports for owned and leased properties. Although
there is no specific statutory requirement for GSA to maintain a
worldwide inventory, GSA has been compiling these data for about 50
years citing its authority under the Property Act. In addition, the
guidance states that GSA compiles the inventory because the Senate
Committee on Appropriations has requested that the government maintain
such data, and Executive Order 12411”a 1983 order that deals with
efficient space utilization”requires that agencies maintain property
inventories. This guidance identified several specific program
objectives for the most recent reporting cycle, which covered fiscal
year 2000. These objectives were to
* provide a centralized source of information on federal real property
holdings;
* track space utilization of reporting agencies;
* identify underutilized property;
* achieve the most effective control and economical governmentwide
utilization of available property;
* facilitate disposal of surplus property;
* evaluate the compliance of reporting agencies with the provisions of
Executive Order 12411 and implementing regulations;
* provide a basis for the intelligent evaluation and appraisal of
budgetary requirements; and;
* establish a ready reference for answering inquiries from Congress;
the press; trade associations; educational institutions; federal,
state, and local government agencies; and the general public.
Despite having well-intentioned objectives, the worldwide inventory
was unreliable in that it contained data that were out-of-date and
incomplete. Specifically, for property owned during the fiscal year
2000 cycle, GSA provided information to us showing that data for 12 of
the 31 major real property-holding agencies it tracks were not
current. Eight of these agencies did not report fiscal year 2000 data
to GSA, three had partial submissions, and one agency submitted data
that GSA said it was unable to use. Using prior year data, we
determined that these 12 agencies held an estimated 32 percent of
federal real property worldwide in terms of building square footage.
It is interesting to note that these results for fiscal year 2000 were
actually an improvement over prior years' results, even though GSA was
unable to compile updated or complete data for 12 of 31 agencies. For
example, GSA provided information showing that”for the 31 real
property-holding agencies it tracks, it was unable to compile updated
or complete data for:
* 23 agencies in fiscal year 1997,
* 24 agencies in fiscal year 1998, and,
* 20 agencies in fiscal year 1999.
The improvement in fiscal year 2000 can be attributed to a GSA effort”
which will be discussed later”to allow agencies with relatively small
property inventories to update their data on-line. Despite this
improvement, the information provided by GSA show that data for 9 of
the 31 agencies in the fiscal year 2000 report had not been updated
since before fiscal year 1997. Overall, GSA was able to consistently
update data for only 5 of the 31 agencies-”the Departments of Commerce
and Agriculture, the Army and the Navy, and the Corps of Engineers'
civilian functions[Footnote 7]-”in the 4-year period covering fiscal
years 1997 through 2000. According to GSA officials, if they did not
receive”or were unable to use”data from an agency, they would use the
most recently available prior year data for the worldwide inventory
report. For example, if an agency provided data for the fiscal year
1998 cycle, but not the fiscal year 1999 or 2000 cycles, GSA would
publish the fiscal year 1998 data for that agency in the fiscal year
2000 report. If an agency provided GSA with a partial submission, GSA
officials said they make an effort to combine these data with existing
data for that agency. As a result, each worldwide inventory report was
a mix of out-of-date and current data, which limited their usefulness
to decisionmakers. Figure 1 shows which agencies reported complete
data, which reported partial data, which provided data GSA said it was
unable to use, and which did not provide any data for fiscal years
1997 to 2000.
Figure 1: Worldwide Inventory Reporting History for Owned Real
Property, by Major Reporting Agency (fiscal years 1997 to 2000):
Agency: Defense: Air Force;
1997: Full submission;
1998: Full submission;
1999: Full submission;
2000: Submitted - not used.
Agency: Defense: Army;
1997: Full submission;
1998: Full submission;
1999: Full submission;
2000: Full submission.
Agency: Defense: Navy;
1997: Full submission;
1998: Full submission;
1999: Full submission;
2000: Full submission.
Agency: Defense: Washington Headquarters Services;
1997: No submission;
1998: No submission;
1999: No submission;
2000: Full submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: Agriculture;
1997: Full submission;
1998: Full submission;
1999: Full submission;
2000: Full submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: American Battle Monuments Commission;
1997: Full submission;
1998: No submission;
1999: No submission;
2000: Full submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: Commerce;
1997: Full submission;
1998: Full submission;
1999: Full submission;
2000: Full submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: Commodity Futures Trading Commission;
1997: No submission;
1998: No submission;
1999: No submission;
2000: No submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: Corps of Engineers (civilian functions);
1997: Full submission;
1998: Full submission;
1999: Full submission;
2000: Full submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: Education;
1997: No submission;
1998: No submission;
1999: No submission;
2000: Full submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: Energy;
1997: Full submission;
1998: Full submission;
1999: Full submission;
2000: Partial submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: Environmental Protection Agency;
1997: No submission;
1998: No submission;
1999: No submission;
2000: Full submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: Federal Communications Commission;
1997: No submission;
1998: No submission;
1999: No submission;
2000: No submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: Federal Emergency Management Agency;
1997: No submission;
1998: No submission;
1999: No submission;
2000: Full submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: General Services Administration (Public Buildings
Service);
1997: No submission;
1998: No submission;
1999: Full submission;
2000: Full submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: Government Printing Office;
1997: No submission;
1998: No submission;
1999: No submission;
2000: No submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: Health and Human Services;
1997: No submission;
1998: No submission;
1999: No submission;
2000: Full submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: Interior;
1997: Partial submission;
1998: Partial submission;
1999: Partial submission;
2000: Full submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: Justice;
1997: Full submission;
1998: Submitted - not used;
1999: Full submission;
2000: Full submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: Labor;
1997: No submission;
1998: Submitted - not used;
1999: Submitted - not used;
2000: No submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: National Aeronautics and Space Administration;
1997: Submitted - not used;
1998: Submitted - not used;
1999: Submitted - not used;
2000: Full submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: National Archives and Records Administration;
1997: No submission;
1998: No submission;
1999: Full submission;
2000: Full submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: National Science Foundation;
1997: No submission;
1998: No submission;
1999: Full submission;
2000: Full submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: Peace Corps;
1997: No submission;
1998: No submission;
1999: No submission;
2000: Full submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: Smithsonian;
1997: No submission;
1998: No submission;
1999: No submission;
2000: No submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: State;
1997: No submission;
1998: No submission;
1999: No submission;
2000: Partial submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: Tennessee Valley Authority;
1997: Submitted - not used;
1998: Submitted - not used;
1999: Submitted - not used;
2000: No submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: Transportation;
1997: No submission;
1998: No submission;
1999: Partial submission;
2000: Partial submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: Treasury;
1997: No submission;
1998: No submission;
1999: No submission;
2000: No submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: US Postal Service;
1997: No submission;
1998: No submission;
1999: Partial submission;
2000: Full submission.
Agency: Non-Defense: Veterans Affairs;
1997: No submission;
1998: No submission;
1999: Submitted - not used;
2000: No submission.
Source: GSA Office of Governmentwide Policy.
[End of figure]
Our analysis of the information provided by GSA and discussions with
the four largest property-holding agencies in terms of building square
footage”DOD, GSA's PBS, VA, and USPS”illustrated some of the problems
that have beset the worldwide inventory effort. For example:
* GSA's PBS did not provide data to GSA's worldwide inventory staff in
OGP in fiscal years 1997 and 1998. We also noted that PBS did not
provide usable data on property it leased in fiscal year 2000.
* VA data in the fiscal year 2000 worldwide inventory report reflected
fiscal year 1995 data. According to GSA officials, VA did not report
in fiscal years 1997, 1998, and 2000. In fiscal year 1999, VA
submitted a file that GSA officials said did not have all the required
data and was unusable. VA officials we interviewed in July 2001 were
unaware that GSA was unable to use their fiscal year 1999 data GSA
officials said that they sent a letter to VA identifying the problems;
however, GSA officials were unable to provide a copy of the letter,
and VA officials said they could not recall receiving it.
* USPS did not report to GSA for fiscal years 1997 and 1998. USPS
reported data for fiscal year 1999, but according to GSA officials,
its contractor was unable to reconcile the submission and used
previous year data. GSA instead used prior year USPS data in its
fiscal years 1997 through 1999 reports. GSA and USPS were unable to
determine which prior year these data covered. USPS successfully sent
an electronic file to GSA for the fiscal year 2000 cycle that GSA used
to update the worldwide inventory report. However, in the report, GSA
highlighted USPS as an agency that saw a large (34 percent) increase
in space in 1 year. GSA officials acknowledged that this was an error
because the figures GSA reported in fiscal year 1999 for USPS were
actually from an earlier year.
* The Air Force provided data to GSA for the fiscal year 2000 cycle in
a commercial off-the-shelf database format. However, GSA officials
said they were unable to read the data and compile it into the
worldwide inventory and instead used fiscal year 1999 data for the Air
Force in the fiscal year 2000 report. Although GSA told us that it
notified the Air Force of the data problems by telephone, Air Force
officials we interviewed in July 2001 said that they were unaware that
GSA had problems with the data they had provided and said that GSA had
not informed them of the problems.
GSA officials we interviewed expressed a general concern that the data
they receive from some agencies often contain duplicate entries and
are missing information. Although they could not quantify the extent
of the problem with duplicate or missing data, GSA officials provided
us with several examples, including properties that were in the
inventory twice because there were variations in the name of the
property. These officials said that they work with their database
contractor to clean up the data they receive from agencies as much as
possible. This involves correcting obvious omissions and deleting
duplications that they are able to identify. As part of our review, we
obtained the worldwide inventory from GSA's database contractor to
test its completeness. Our testing showed that data for basic data
fields that GSA expects agencies to provide”including street address
and zip code”were often missing. For example, the worldwide inventory
tracks real property by installation and building. Each installation
is made up of anywhere from as few as 1 to as many as hundreds of
buildings.[Footnote 8] Of the 41,312 installations identified as
government-owned for the purposes of the worldwide inventory, 89
percent lacked a complete street address in the worldwide inventory.
Seventy-six percent had no zip code. GSA officials said that some of
these data were missing because they were inadvertently deleted or
moved during a recent upgrade of the software. At the end of our
review, GSA officials said that they corrected the problem for the
missing street addresses. In its written comments on this report, GSA
said that the majority of incomplete address and zip code data
remaining are a result of incomplete agency submissions.
The worldwide inventory and related annual reports also lacked certain
key data that would be needed in order to meet some of the effort's
key program objectives. For example, despite having the objectives to
track space utilization and identify underutilized property, the
inventory and related reports contained no information on such
utilization. Further, despite having an objective to facilitate
disposal of surplus property, the inventory and related reports did
not contain information”which agencies may have available”on
properties that may have been candidates for disposal or were going
through the property disposal process. The inventory and related
reports also did not contain other information that would be useful to
decisionmakers, such as the security level, physical condition, age,
or repair needs of the buildings. Combined with the problems discussed
earlier related to unreliable data, the lack of certain key data, in
our view, further limits the worldwide inventory's usefulness to
decisionmakers for budgeting and strategic decisionmaking purposes.
In addition to the omission of certain key data, the annual reports
GSA publishes using the worldwide inventory do not reflect the most
recent status of the federal real property inventory. Yearly worldwide
inventory reports are GSA's primary method of providing information on
the government's real property to Congress, other decisionmakers, and
the public. However, GSA usually publishes the reports”one report for
owned property and one for leased property”about 8 months after the
end of the fiscal year. For example, the fiscal year 2000 report”which
is intended to reflect property holdings as of September 30, 2000”was
published in June 2001. However, the changing makeup of the federal
real property inventory makes these reports considerably dated when
they are issued. Officials from GSA and several of the reporting
agencies said that a governmentwide inventory system with real-time
capabilities would be more useful. GSA's efforts to explore the
development of an inventory with real-time capabilities are discussed
later in this report.
We also had concerns about some of the statements in GSA's recent
worldwide inventory reports about data accuracy and completeness, as
well as statements about our supposed involvement in the effort. The
fiscal year 1997 through 2000 reports state that:
"Agency reports were carefully reviewed for accuracy, completeness,
and conformance with instructions. Questionable items were resolved
with agency representatives and the detailed inventory listings
supporting the summary data in this report were certified by the
respective agencies..." and,
"[GSA] collaborated with [GAO] in providing appropriate guidelines to
federal agencies designed to assure consistent application of sound
practices and adequate standards in accounting and reporting for owned
and leased property."
As previously mentioned, GSA officials said that they work with their
contractor to clean up the data they receive from agencies as much as
possible. However, the GSA official responsible for the worldwide
inventory said that the first statement above on data accuracy and
completeness overstates the extent of GSA's review efforts. Regarding
the statement about our involvement, we were unaware of any such
collaboration and the GSA official did not know the basis for the
statement. This official said that the language about data checking
and our collaboration was passed down year after year in the report.
We checked the fiscal year 1988 worldwide inventory report and found
that it contained the same language. In its written comments on this
report, GSA said that the collaboration referenced between GSA and GAO
in the preparation of the worldwide inventory dated back to the
initial report to Congress dated March 25, 1955. GSA officials said
that they would delete or revise the language in future reports.
Worldwide Inventory Effort Has Experienced Problems for a Number of
Reasons:
On the basis of our analysis and interviews with agency officials, we
identified a number of reasons for why the worldwide inventory effort
has experienced problems. First, there was poor communication between
GSA and the reporting agencies. Second, GSA and some of the reporting
agencies had technical difficulties compiling the data for the
inventory. Third, most of the agencies we contacted said that resource
constraints have affected their ability to work with GSA to compile
the inventory. Also, while GSA officials believe that the Property Act
provides them with general authority to compile the inventory, they
recognize that there is no specific statutory requirement for a
worldwide inventory. GSA officials said that specific legislation
requiring GSA to prepare a worldwide inventory and requiring agencies
to provide reliable data would strengthen the effort.
Officials with GSA's OGP component[Footnote 9] told us that they
generally notify agencies in writing when there are problems with the
submissions to the worldwide inventory. However, they recognized that
this approach might not have been working very effectively. Our work
showed that there was poor communication between GSA and some of the
major property-holding agencies during recent worldwide inventory
efforts. As discussed earlier, VA officials we interviewed were
unaware that GSA did not compile and publish their fiscal year 1999
submission, and Air Force officials were unaware that GSA had
technical problems with their fiscal year 2000 submission. These two
agencies alone account for roughly one-quarter of all federal real
property in terms of building square footage. In contrast, USPS
officials said that they had received a great deal of valuable help
from the GSA staff during the fiscal year 2000 cycle. GSA acknowledged
that it could have done more to communicate with some agencies,
including VA and the Air Force.
Regarding the format that agencies use to provide the data, GSA has
developed different options for data submissions. GSA has requested
that agencies provide the data in a generic file format. This
approach, according to GSA officials, allows them to more easily
assemble the data into one single database. GSA guidance includes
instructions for assembling the data, and agencies have the options of
physically providing GSA with a file or transmitting the data
electronically. Agencies can also use special software GSA has
developed for real property management, known as Foundation
Information for Real Property Management (FIRM). Agencies can obtain
FIRM from GSA free of charge, and GSA will provide assistance
implementing the software. GSA has also worked with its database
contractor on an effort that allows agencies to update information on
their assets through the Internet. GSA officials told us that FIRM and
the Internet updating method are mostly suitable for agencies with
relatively smaller inventories that do not have their own real
property management systems.
Despite these efforts, our work showed that GSA and some of the
reporting agencies encountered technical difficulties compiling the
data for the inventory. For example, staff from GSA's PBS said that
software upgrades in their real property management system were a
major reason why they were unable to submit data for fiscal years 1997
and 1998. These upgrades made it more difficult for them to extract
the data GSA's OGP component needed for the worldwide inventory. PBS
staff also said that the data OGP requests for the worldwide inventory
come from three GSA systems, making the data difficult to compile.
They were able to submit data on owned property to OGP for fiscal
years 1999 and 2000 in a commercial off-the-shelf spreadsheet format,
but, according to OGP officials, OGP staff had to manually enter the
data into the worldwide inventory because they were unable to read the
file. At VA, officials said that they manually collect the data from
each hospital director, and headquarters staff compile the data in a
commercial off-the-shelf spreadsheet format for GSA. GSA staff said
that the file VA submitted for fiscal year 1999 did not have all the
required data, but as we indicated earlier, VA officials were unaware
that GSA had problems with the submission. As also previously
mentioned, the Air Force's fiscal year 2000 submission was not used
because GSA was unable to read the file. GSA's FIRM software did work
for some agencies when it was introduced; however, GSA officials said
that many agencies encountered problems with FIRM when they updated
their operating system applications to Windows. The Internet
application GSA developed has worked for smaller agencies, but
agencies with large inventories, according to GSA, do not use it
because each property file has to be entered individually.
Officials we contacted from some of the reporting agencies said that
resource constraints negatively affected their ability to provide data
to GSA each year or to fully ensure their accuracy. For example,
according to a March 2000 GSA Office of the Inspector General (IG)
report, staff downsizing and reorganizations in PBS have reduced
resources available for worldwide inventory reporting.[Footnote 10] VA
officials told us that its budget resources were insufficient to
provide data to GSA. USPS officials also told us that budget resource
constraints were a factor in years when they were unable to provide
data to GSA. Air Force and Marine Corps officials said staffing
constraints have somewhat impeded the timeliness and completeness of
their data validation procedures for the real property data they
collect. However, they both expressed overall confidence in the data.
Officials from GSA's OGP said that limited staff resources generally
have prevented them from working with agencies to resolve problems
with their submissions and limited their ability to follow up with
agencies that do not submit data. Two GSA staff work part-time on the
worldwide inventory effort. GSA staff said that the yearly deadline
they face to publish the worldwide inventory report also compounds the
resource problem. They said that there often is not enough time to
work with agencies to resolve problems between the date when agencies
submit data and GSA's publishing date. In its written comments on this
report, GSA said that the ability of GSA, as the coordinating agency,
and the individual agencies, as reporting agencies, to effectively
compile the annual data report has always been subject to available
resources. GSA went on to say that GSA and the reporting agencies
would have devoted more effort to compiling data if there had been
more dedicated resources available.
GSA officials also cited their lack of specific statutory authority to
require agencies to submit data for the inventory as another problem.
As previously mentioned, GSA compiles the inventory because, according
to GSA guidance, the Senate Committee on Appropriations has requested
that the government maintain such data; and Executive Order 12411”a
1983 order that deals with efficient space utilization”requires
agencies to maintain property inventories. In addition, the Property
Act gives the administrator of GSA general authority to survey
government property. GSA issues guidance for the worldwide inventory
effort that is published in the CFR. Although real property-holding
agencies are expected to follow this guidance when providing data for
the inventory, GSA officials said that having agencies provide
reliable data for the worldwide inventory is essentially voluntary and
having legislation requiring a worldwide inventory and requiring
agencies to provide reliable data would be beneficial to GSA. Without
specific statutory authority, GSA has limited leverage or authority
over property-holding agencies to require them to consistently provide
current, accurate, and complete data on their real property assets.
Such legislation could make the worldwide inventory a higher priority
at the agency level and help the effort compete for resources.
Recently proposed legislation, which will be discussed later in this
report, would address these issues. GSA also has made revisions to the
CFR guidance on worldwide inventory submissions. These revisions will
also be discussed later in this report.
The March 2000 GSA IG report also identified several problems with the
worldwide inventory. The IG report concluded that GSA had no assurance
that the worldwide inventory reports provided accurate, timely, and
complete data for identifying real property assets. In reviewing the
fiscal year 1998 worldwide inventory reports, the IG also found that
GSA's own PBS had not submitted its real property inventory data for
several years. According to the GSA IG, the main reasons PBS did not
adhere to its own agency's regulation included technical challenges
with compiling the data and, as mentioned earlier, staff resource
constraints. In addition, the report stated that GSA lacked authority
to mandate accurate worldwide inventory reporting. The IG report also
said that GSA had not attempted to determine who uses the worldwide
inventory reports or for what purposes the reports are used. The IG
concluded that without this information, GSA would have difficulty
gauging the performance of the inventory effort and ensuring that it
is a useful tool. In commenting on our report, GSA said that at the
time of the IG report, user information was anecdotal based on user
requests. Since then, GSA said the database has become available in an
on-line format that provides for a more accurate understanding of the
customer agencies being served. This on-line effort is discussed later
in this report.
Some Major Real Property-Holding Agencies Have Faced Challenges
Developing Quality Data We noted during our review that real property
data problems have not been isolated to the worldwide inventory. Some
major real property-holding agencies that provide input to the
worldwide inventory have faced challenges in developing quality data
on their real property assets. Some of these problems were evident at
DOD, the largest property-holding agency. In August 2001, DOD's Office
of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Installations and
Environment issued a report that assessed DOD's real property
information systems from a management standpoint.[Footnote 11] The
report concluded that DOD's current real property information systems
are not sufficiently timely, standardized, or easily accessible, thus
hindering DOD's ability to make informed strategic facility budget and
policy decisions about real property issues. More specifically, the
report said that DOD real property data are:
* incompatible across DOD components;
* inaccessible to key users; and;
* inaccurate and incomplete, necessitating application of complex and
inefficient business rules to use the data.
The report said that these shortcomings result in (1) wasted money as
analysts expend excessive resources to produce and obtain usable
information; (2) inconsistent analyses that undermine credibility
inside and outside DOD; and (3) flawed decisions based on poor
information, producing unintended consequences. The report recommended
that the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for
Installations and Environment maintain a Web-accessible, consolidated
DOD real property inventory database for use by all DOD activities and
analysts and, in conjunction with the services and other defense
agencies, create an incentive program for maintaining high-quality
data and establish, publish, and enforce real property inventory data
standards. DOD is moving to implement these recommendations and
believes that the entire defense community will benefit from the
advantages of an improved data system.
VA has recognized that it has problems with its real property
information and has undertaken several efforts to make improvements.
At the time of our review, VA was using a commercial off-the-shelf
spreadsheet application to maintain data on its real property
inventory. In an effort to compile data for this inventory, VA has
surveyed its medical centers in recent years. In fiscal year 2000,
this effort”which was referred to as the Capital Asset Baseline
Assessment (CABA)”revealed that VA had 4,972 buildings instead of the
4,771 buildings VA identified in a similar effort in fiscal year 1997.
Of the 201 additional buildings, VA was able to readily identify 51 of
the buildings that were previously unaccounted for and believed that
the remaining 150 were probably other structures, such as flagpoles
and smoking shelters, that the medical centers included in their
building counts. At the time of our review, VA was working with a
consultant on a new effort to inventory the properties, known as the
Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Service (CARES) effort. VA
officials said that CARES includes site visits to ensure the accuracy
of the data and may serve as the basis for developing a more advanced
real property information system. Also, VA was in the process of
contracting for additional expertise in developing a more state-of-the-
art capital asset management approach.
GSA's PBS has experienced significant, long-standing problems with the
reliability and accuracy of its real property data. Over 10 years ago,
we reported that GSA had a pervasive information problem that hampered
its ability to manage its programs effectively and hold managers
accountable for performance.[Footnote 12] In our 1991 report on the
deterioration and obsolescence of PBS's building inventory, we
identified PBS's lack of complete data on needed repairs and
alterations as a major reason for the problems.[Footnote 13] A
subsequent report in March 2000 found that repair and alteration data
problems still existed.[Footnote 14] In 1999, we reported that PBS
knew it had data problems in its real property management system, the
System for Tracking and Administering Real Property (STAR).[Footnote
15] We noted in the report that the GSA IG found that over half of the
space drawings were inaccurate, and GSA's outside auditor found
problems with controls over the integrity of PBS's rent and leasing
data. Also, related to the rent that PBS charges agencies for
occupying GSA-controlled buildings, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation had to tell PBS that it was not being billed for $3
million worth of space assignments and the Census Bureau was not being
billed for new offices that PBS delivered. PBS has taken several steps
in the last few years to address the reliability and accuracy of the
STAR data, although we have not evaluated them.
On balance, it is important to note that some of the agencies we
contacted had fairly advanced real property management systems. For
example, four organizations have on-line real property data systems”
DOD's Washington Headquarters Services (WHS), which manages DOD
facilities in the Washington, D.C. area; the Army; the Navy; and USPS.
WHS maintains an on-line computerized database of all vacant building
space and occupied space in leased facilities. The database is
regularly updated to reflect data on WHS's holdings, including space
type, availability, and location. It is supplemented by a subscription
to a commercial on-line database that maintains comparable data for
all commercially available properties in the Washington, D.C. area.
The Army's system, known as the Headquarters Executive Information
Service, maintains many types of real property data that are instantly
accessible. According to Army officials, the Army system has data
quality and assurance control features that flag data that exceed
specified parameters. The Navy's real property database has been
maintained on-line with real-time capabilities since 1978, with
selected installations having direct access since 1982. According to
USPS officials, its real property inventory system, known as the
Facilities Management System for Windows, can be instantaneously
updated. USPS officials told us that error reports in their system are
generated automatically when user fields are entered incorrectly. The
Army and USPS systems also have the capability to electronically
gather and automatically transmit data to GSA for the worldwide
inventory.
Reliability of Real Property Data in the Government's Consolidated
Financial Statement Also Problematic:
We also noted that real property financial data that Treasury compiles
annually have had reliability problems. The Chief Financial Officers
Act of 1990 (CFO Act), as expanded by the Government Management Reform
Act, required the annual preparation and audit of individual financial
statements for the federal government's 24 major agencies.[Footnote
16] Treasury was also required to compile consolidated financial
statements for the U.S. government, which we audit.[Footnote 17] In
March 2001, we reported that”for the fourth consecutive year”we were
unable to express an opinion on the U.S. government's consolidated
financial statements for fiscal year 2000.[Footnote 18] Various
material weaknesses[Footnote 19] related to financial systems,
fundamental recordkeeping and financial reporting, and incomplete
documentation continued to (1) hamper the government's ability to
accurately report a significant portion of its assets, liabilities,
and costs; (2) affect the government's ability to accurately measure
the full costs and financial performance of certain programs and
effectively manage related operations; and (3) significantly impair
the government's ability to adequately safeguard certain significant
assets and properly record various transactions. Because the
government lacked complete and reliable information to support asset
holdings”including real property”it could not satisfactorily determine
that all assets were included in the financial statements, verify that
certain reported assets actually existed, or substantiate the amounts
at which they were valued. Several problems with the completeness and
accuracy of real property values reported on the financial statements
at real property-holding agencies have surfaced in recent years. For
example:
* In February 2001, the DOD Inspector General reported[Footnote 20]
that previously identified problems continued to affect the accuracy
of amounts reported for real property within DOD. Controls necessary
to accurately record additions, deletions, and capital improvements
made to real property had not been fully implemented.
* The Department of the Interior auditor's fiscal year 2000
accountability report[Footnote 21] stated that the subsidiary ledgers
for buildings and other structures and facilities did not have
sufficient internal control procedures to ensure that account balances
were stated in accordance with generally accepted accounting
principles (GAAP).[Footnote 22] Examples included items with incorrect
acquisition costs ascribed to them, items that had been demolished but
not removed from the ledgers, and items that had not been included in
the ledgers.
* The VA auditor's report on internal control over financial
reporting[Footnote 23] for fiscal year 2000 noted unreconciled
differences between the general ledger and the Property Management
System (PMS) subsidiary ledger during a system conversion for the Loan
Guaranty Program, as well as an error in PMS that caused new postings
to be recorded at up to four times the appropriate values.
We noted during our review that the value of federal real property
reported in the consolidated financial statements of the U.S.
government and the value in the worldwide inventory differed. Our
analysis of the financial statements showed the cost of federal real
property holdings at $320 billion,[Footnote 24] as of September 30,
2000. The worldwide inventory identified the cost[Footnote 25] of
federal real property as $260 billion, as of September 30, 2000. We
did not attempt to reconcile these amounts or identify the reasons for
the difference because this was outside of the scope of our review.
However, we noted that GSA recently issued revised guidance specifying
that asset value data reported for the worldwide inventory should
preferably originate from the same accounting records used to support
agency financial statements. The purpose of this is to ensure that the
guidance is consistent with current federal financial accounting
principles. In commenting on this report, GSA said that one of the
goals of its inventory retooling effort, which will be discussed
later, is to allow for better reconciliation of data from the
worldwide inventory with those provided in agency financial
statements. Having data on asset value in the worldwide inventory that
originate from the same source used to generate financial statements
seems reasonable because these the financial statements are subject to
audit in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards.
However, as mentioned before, the financial statement data have also
been problematic; therefore, under this approach, the worldwide
inventory asset value data will be improved only to the extent that
the federal government has adequate systems and controls to ensure the
accuracy of financial data on its assets.
Better Data Are Needed for Effective Decisionmaking in the Real
Property Area:
We and others, including OMB, various state governments, and private
sector entities believe that having quality information is essential
to making sound and economical real property decisions. Inaccurate
asset information impairs the government's ability to (1) know the
assets it owns and their location and condition, (2) safeguard the
assets from physical deterioration or loss, (3) account for
acquisitions and disposals of such assets, (4) prevent unnecessary
maintenance costs, and (5) determine the full costs of governmental
programs that use these assets. Furthermore, we have reported that in
leading organizations, having quality information on asset
performance, condition, and cost is critical to making informed
capital resource allocation decisions.[Footnote 26] These
organizations maintain asset and facility inventory systems that
include the current condition of existing capital assets. The data and
information provided by well-planned information systems give these
organizations the ability to build comprehensive measures of
performance, collect relevant data, and perform analyses that can be
used to support strategic as well as operational budgeting initiatives.
In July 2000, we reported that the lack of quality governmentwide data
makes it difficult for the government to select an optimal level of
capital spending needed for the acquisition and maintenance of real
property.[Footnote 27] The lack of governmentwide data also impedes
the government's ability to identify and dispose of real property
assets that are no longer needed or cost-effective to retain. If the
government does not have a good perspective on its property holdings
because of poor data, it may be incurring costs needlessly, because
some of its buildings and land could be put to more cost-beneficial
uses, exchanged for other needed property, or sold. OMB has encouraged
agencies to improve their capital planning processes, and an OMB
policy analyst we interviewed said that the worldwide inventory should
be improved because decisionmakers need such a tool. The OMB
representative said that knowing the value of the property the
government owns”as well as having quality information on the nature of
the assets that the government is responsible for”would help
decisionmakers formulate future budgets for replacing facilities and
for repair and maintenance. He also said that trend data from the
worldwide inventory could be useful for exploring real property
management reform.
We noted during our review that some state governments have recognized
the importance of having quality real property data. Although we did
not evaluate these efforts, some states appear to have developed
fairly advanced real property information systems. For example,
according to an official with the state of California, the California
Department of General Services maintained regularly updated real
property reporting systems to ensure that it met the needs of its
customers. California was taking steps to ensure that its system
contains necessary information to serve as a management tool.
California has reported that since January 2001, it has made
significant progress in developing a real-time access application for
users. The new features were intended to allow state agencies to
reconcile their inventories on-line. According to a Massachusetts
state official, the Massachusetts legislature authorized a major new
initiative to manage the state's real estate in 1999, appropriating
funds to conduct a comprehensive condition survey of the state's
capital assets and to obtain a software package to manage the data.
This package was designed to help the state keep track of more than
5,000 buildings and 77 million square feet of office space the
government owned throughout the state. The system was to be
centralized and allow each state agency to update real property
information on-line. According to information we obtained from the
state of New York, New York's Real Property System was a fully
integrated property inventory data management system that ran in the
Windows environment. It had an open relational database architecture,
which meant that the data could be easily exported to common
spreadsheet or database products.
Quality data are essential to effective decisionmaking in the real
property area, and the worldwide inventory is a prime candidate for
fulfilling this role in the federal government. Having quality
governmentwide data is especially critical because we have found
pervasive management challenges in the federal real property area.
Many of these challenges were tied to data weaknesses or were
challenges that will be difficult to overcome without better
management information. Some examples of this prior work include the
following:
* Federal facilities continue to deteriorate. We reported in March
2000 that $4 billion was needed for repairs and alterations in GSA-
controlled buildings.[Footnote 28] Some of the repairs were needed to
better protect the safety of the occupants and the public. [Footnote
29]
* The federal government holds property that it no longer needs. We
reported in 1996 that the State Department had identified over 100
overseas properties valued at $467 million for potential sale.
[Footnote 30] However, we identified other properties worth millions
of dollars not on the list that appeared excess to State's needs or
that had a questionable value. Since 1996, State had developed a more
systematic process for identifying excess property that may be
available for sale, but implementation of these new processes was
still under way.
* Terrorism is a problem that will challenge the government's ability
to protect employees, the public, and property. Having quality
information will be a critical part of ensuring adequate protection,
but we have found that developing quality data related to security was
a problem area. For example, we reported in October 1999 that GSA
lacked accurate data on security upgrades to adequately track
improvements that were made in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing.
[Footnote 31] In June 2000, we reported that GSA lacked performance
goals and measures related to the adequacy of security in the
buildings it controls despite prior concerns by the GSA IG and us that
there were significant problems with GSA's building security program.
[Footnote 32] GSA has since developed and begun implementing a new
risk assessment methodology, as well as new results-oriented
performance measures.
* DOD's real property management practices need improvement. In 1999,
we reported that DOD's management of its properties had concerned
Congress because of the long-standing absence of accurate data for
making funding decisions and increasing backlogs in infrastructure
repairs.[Footnote 33] We also reported that DOD did not have a
comprehensive strategy for maintaining its infrastructure. As a
result, there was little relationship between identified needs and the
funds that were allocated for real property maintenance. In response
to this report and concern by others, DOD began an overhaul of its
real property management effort.
Actions Needed to Make the Worldwide Inventory A More Useful Tool:
If GSA is to make the worldwide inventory a useful management tool, it
will have to improve communication with participating agencies,
enhance the technical capability to obtain reliable data from the
agencies, establish effective data validation procedures, and work
with agencies to obtain the necessary resource commitment to the
effort. GSA recognizes that actions are needed and has undertaken a
major effort aimed at improving the effectiveness of the worldwide
inventory as a decisionmaking tool. With OMB's consent, GSA suspended
the fiscal year 2001 reporting process and related summary reports”
which would have been issued in mid-2002”to allow the necessary time
for a comprehensive review of the worldwide inventory effort,
including the processes and databases that support the worldwide
inventory and the merits of a more advanced system. As part of this
effort, which GSA referred to as a retooling of the worldwide
inventory, GSA plans to move toward a technologically enhanced
platform with the capability to track the federal government's real
property assets in a real-time environment. This approach would be
intended to complement the issuance of periodic reports on federal
real property holdings. GSA officials pointed out, however, that
moving to a real-time environment would only be possible to the extent
that agencies adopt real-time capabilities in their systems.
GSA officials said they are working with reporting agencies to improve
the worldwide inventory effort. To ensure that the worldwide inventory
is a valuable real property asset management tool that decisionmakers
and agency asset managers will find useful, GSA asked agencies to
provide their views regarding current data fields and their level of
importance to asset management. As discussed earlier, for the fiscal
year 2000 reporting cycle, some agencies were able to update their
data on the Internet. GSA and its contractor developed the worldwide
inventory Internet application, which is an application tied to a
database that can be accessed on-line via the Internet. The on-line
application allows some agencies to enter and update their data in
real-time. Although this application was initially used by agencies
with smaller property inventories, it is GSA's intention”as part of
the retooling effort”to enhance this platform so that all reporting
agencies can easily use and provide current worldwide inventory
information to federal real property stakeholders and the public in a
real-time environment. GSA officials also said they are developing a
tool that will allow agencies to extract data more easily from their
databases for submission to the worldwide inventory effort. In
commenting on this report, GSA added that ongoing agency input and
cooperation were fostered during a kick-off users' group meeting held
in November 2001 to inform agencies of plans to modernize the system.
GSA said that at that meeting, agencies were invited to participate in
a series of monthly focus groups as a means to obtain their
participation and buy-in and provide feedback to GSA. GSA also said
that it was reviewing the worldwide inventory reporting requirements,
reviewing a sampling of other large asset management systems currently
in use by public and private entities, and adopting observed good
practices.
GSA also issued an interim rule in November 2001 revising the CFR
guidance related to the worldwide inventory. According to the interim
rule, GSA revised the guidance so that it was written in plain
language and contained a question and answer format to provide
agencies with updated regulatory material that is easy to read and
understand. As mentioned earlier, the revised guidance stipulated that
data reported for the worldwide inventory should preferably originate
from the same accounting records used to support agency financial
statements. In an attempt to improve the quality of the data, the GSA
guidance stated that agencies providing data must certify the accuracy
of the real property information submitted. The revised guidance also
specified the method of data submission available to agencies and
required that agencies providing data must submit real property
information in electronic format. Although GSA's guidance set out
several requirements for agencies that provide it with data for the
worldwide inventory, GSA officials emphasized that compliance with
this guidance is essentially voluntary because GSA lacks specific
statutory authority to require agencies to submit data.
GSA said it was aware that problems existed with the accuracy of
agency inventory data and that it has worked on several legislative
initiatives to correct deficiencies. GSA said that these legislative
initiatives”which were developed and submitted by the administration”
specifically address and would make GSA more accountable for the
worldwide inventory effort. S. 1612[Footnote 34] and H.R. 3947
[Footnote 35] would amend the Property Act and among other things,
require the administrator of GSA to maintain a single, comprehensive
descriptive database of all federal real property interests. The
legislation would further require each federal real property-holding
agency to establish a senior real property officer who, among other
things, would be responsible for providing a listing and description
of real property assets under that agency's control to GSA. These
bills would make exceptions for classified information. In the
interest of facilitating agency reporting on a uniform basis, these
bills would also authorize the administrator to establish data and
other information technology standards for use by federal agencies in
developing or upgrading real property information systems. These bills
would also require the administrator of GSA, with OMB and the heads of
federal agencies, to develop asset management principles for the
federal government and follow specific conditions under which agencies
can enter into partnerships with the private sector related to real
property. Provisions dealing with the worldwide inventory were also
contained in S. 2805,[Footnote 36] the Federal Property Asset
Management Reform Act of 2000. S. 2805 was not enacted; however, we
testified in July 2000 in support of the bill's provisions dealing
with the worldwide inventory. According to GSA officials, legislation
requiring a governmentwide real property inventory and requiring real
property-holding agencies to provide reliable data would go a long way
toward improving the quality of data in the worldwide inventory, as
well as strategic decisionmaking. In commenting on this report, GSA
also emphasized the importance of having a senior real property
officer at each agency to improve worldwide inventory reporting.
GSA's actions are steps in the right direction. However, GSA will face
formidable challenges in developing a reliable, timely, and useful
database on the government's real property assets. Our work showed
that GSA had difficulty compiling data from some real property-holding
agencies using a standard file format; thus successfully integrating
data from across agencies into a database that has real-time
capabilities could be a major undertaking. As part of this effort, GSA
will be challenged to find ways to address the cost associated with
designing and implementing a quality real property database.
Furthermore, GSA will be challenged to work effectively across
government with the many real property-holding agencies, Congress,
OMB, and Treasury to identify the types of governmentwide data that
would be most useful to promoting (1) effective knowledge sharing
among federal agencies about each others' real property holdings and
(2) better budgeting and strategic decisionmaking about the
government's real property assets by OMB and Congress. Another
challenge for GSA will be to work with participating agencies to get
their real property databases to produce common data, including
reliable data on asset value from accounting records used to support
agencies' financial statements, that are needed to make the worldwide
inventory an effective and valued resource.
If the worldwide inventory is to become a valued resource that
decisionmakers look to for comprehensive, current, and reliable data
on the government's vast and diverse real property inventory, a well-
formulated approach for making improvements will be a critical
necessity. Given past problems GSA has experienced compiling the
worldwide inventory on a yearly basis and the challenges it faces in
developing a more advanced approach, GSA will have to exercise strong
leadership to keep the initiative on track. GSA will have to work with
Congress, OMB, Treasury, and major real property-holding agencies to
develop a cost-effective strategy for designing and implementing this
new system. At a minimum, this strategy will have to address such
issues as agency communication, technical capabilities, resources, and
data validation procedures. Regarding data validation, GSA will have
to address the issue of how best to have agencies report reliable data
that originate from the same accounting records used to support
agencies' financial statements, as specified in GSA's revised
worldwide inventory guidance. As part of the strategy, GSA will also
have to:
* work closely with participating agencies to clearly identify
expectations and the process that will be used to improve the
worldwide inventory,
* consider the costs associated with implementing a new approach, and,
* establish results-oriented goals and targets so that progress and
performance can be measured.
To guide the initiative and allow all the key players to fully
understand the objectives and scope of the effort, it would be useful
for GSA to provide Congress, OMB, Treasury, and the property-holding
agencies an action plan that identifies the major tasks to be
completed with time frames, estimated costs, and related results-
oriented goals and targets.
Conclusions:
The federal government's valuable inventory of real property is vast
and diverse, with assets around the world, including office buildings,
military bases, hospitals, embassies, and postal facilities. In the
coming years, quality data will be a critical tool for addressing a
wide range of significant issues related to real property, including
deteriorating federal facilities, unneeded and underutilized space,
and protecting people and facilities. Despite these challenges, we
found that decisionmakers do not have access to quality data on what
real property assets the government owns; their value; whether the
assets are being used efficiently; and what overall costs are involved
in preserving, protecting, and investing in them. Also, real property-
holding agencies cannot easily identify opportunities to use
underutilized properties at other agencies that may suit their needs.
For years, GSA's worldwide inventory has been the only central source
of descriptive data on governmentwide real property assets. The
purpose of the worldwide inventory was to compile the type of data
that key decisionmakers and officials in real property-holding
agencies could use to make well-informed decisions on the significant
issues they face. However, for a variety of reasons, GSA has been
unable to successfully maintain a reliable, timely, and useful
worldwide inventory. Compounding the problem is that some major real
property-holding agencies have faced various challenges in maintaining
quality data on their assets and basic financial data on real property
in the government's consolidated financial statements have been
unreliable.
Attempting to strategically manage the government's vast and diverse
portfolio without quality data puts the government's real property
operations at risk and can be likened to navigating the oceans of the
world without the benefit of oceanographic charts. GSA recognizes the
importance of having quality data and has recently embarked on a
comprehensive initiative to overhaul the worldwide inventory. However,
if GSA is to be successful in compiling reliable, timely, and useful
data on federal real property, it will have to exercise strong
leadership and develop and implement a cost-effective strategy for
this initiative. GSA will be challenged to work effectively across
government with the many real property-holding agencies, Congress,
Treasury, and OMB to identify and compile reliable, useful data in a
manner that major stakeholders agree is cost-effective. Another
challenge for GSA will be to work with participating agencies to get
their real property databases to produce common data that are needed
to make the worldwide inventory an effective and valued resource. GSA
will also be challenged to obtain reliable data on asset value from
accounting records used to support agencies' financial statements. In
addition, there is concern that (1) GSA does not have the needed
statutory authority to specifically require other agencies, whose
participation has varied, to provide data and (2) agencies may not
have the resources to effectively comply with this initiative. Given
past problems GSA has experienced and the many players involved with
this initiative, a well-formulated plan for making improvements will
be a critical necessity. Furthermore, providing GSA with specific
statutory authority to maintain a worldwide inventory and to require
agencies to submit reliable data could strengthen GSA's central role,
help improve the quality of data in the worldwide inventory, and lead
to agencies giving higher priority to the inventory when making
resource allocation decisions.
Recommendations for Executive Action:
We recommend that the administrator of GSA exercise strong leadership
and work with Congress, OMB, Treasury, and real property-holding
agencies to design a cost-effective strategy for developing and
implementing a reliable, timely, and useful governmentwide real
property database. At a minimum, the strategy should address
interagency communication; technical capability to provide the common
data needed to make the worldwide inventory an effective and valued
resource; resource issues; and data validation procedures, including
steps to be taken to implement the part of GSA's revised worldwide
inventory guidance that calls for agencies to report reliable cost
data that originate from the same accounting records used to support
agencies' financial statements. To better ensure the success of this
initiative, we are also recommending that GSA (1) work closely with
participating real property-holding agencies to clearly identify
expectations and the process that will be used for improving the
worldwide inventory; (2) establish results-oriented goals and targets
so that progress and performance can be measured; and (3) provide
Congress, OMB, Treasury, and real property-holding agencies with a
detailed action plan that lays out the major tasks to be accomplished
with time frames, estimated costs, and related goals and targets to
measure results.
Matter for Congressional Consideration:
Congress should consider enacting legislation requiring GSA to
maintain an accurate and up-to-date governmentwide inventory of real
property assets and requiring real property-holding agencies to submit
reliable data on their real property assets to GSA.
Agency Comments:
On March 27, 2002, GSA's deputy associate administrator in OGP told us
that GSA generally agreed with the thrust of the report and its
recommendations. On this date, GSA's administrator also provided
detailed written comments, which are discussed below and throughout
the report; these comments are included as appendix II. On March 28,
2002, DOD's deputy under secretary of defense (installations and
environment) provided written comments and concurred with the report's
content and results. DOD also offered some other comments regarding
the recommendations for executive action, which are discussed below,
and provided some technical comments, which we incorporated where
appropriate. DOD's written comments are included as appendix III. On
March 25, 2002, the OMB policy analyst responsible for GSA and
familiar with the worldwide inventory said he agreed with the report's
message and provided technical comments, which we incorporated where
appropriate. In commenting on the report, the OMB representative
expressed some concern about GSA's ability to have agencies report
reliable cost data that originate from the same accounting records
used to support agencies' financial statements. On the basis of this
comment and a subsequent discussion with GSA's deputy associate
administrator in OGP, we decided to specify that GSA should address
this issue as part of the strategy that we recommended. By e-mail
dated March 27, 2002, VA's GAO liaison told us that VA would work
closely with GSA as it improves the worldwide inventory. USPS's GAO
liaison and a senior staff accountant from Treasury notified us that
they had no comments.
GSA Comments:
In GSA's general comments related to the worldwide inventory and its
efforts to address the problems, GSA stated that the accuracy,
reliability, and usability of the real property data contained in the
worldwide inventory database have long been a concern. GSA stated that
when OGP was established in 1995, the responsibility for real property
data collection was moved to the new organization. This was done in
part to separate the inventory data collection responsibility from
GSA's operational organization, PBS, and place it within the
organization whose role is to focus on enhancements to the federal
government's real property assets at large. GSA went on to say that
the new office's efforts began with the development of a series of
asset management principles, which provide guidance on life-cycle
costing and effective asset management and use.
As an outgrowth of the asset management principles, GSA said that it
has aggressively pursued reforms to the Property Act in order to
promote efficient and effective stewardship in federal asset
management. GSA said it submitted to Congress major legislative
proposals, which were discussed earlier in the report, to amend the
Property Act and to provide accountable management structures for
federal agencies that hold property, provide a wide range of new tools
and authorities, and ensure strategic planning processes for real
property that effectively support agencies' missions. GSA highlighted
a provision of these legislative proposals related to the
establishment of senior real property officers at property-holding
agencies. These officers would be the single points of contact for
managing the agencies' real property assets and for providing
accurate, reliable, and usable real property data for the worldwide
inventory database.
GSA also highlighted OGP's major retooling of the worldwide inventory
that was discussed earlier in this report and said that these efforts
included conducting a "zero-base review" of the worldwide inventory
reporting requirements, reviewing a sampling of other large asset
management systems currently in use by public and private entities,
and adopting observed good practices. GSA pointed out that this
retooling effort was launched and continues with the collaboration of
federal customer agency partners. The goal is to develop a revised
tool that will help individual agencies to better manage their real
property assets and that will be capable of producing reliable current
information about federal real property holdings. In addition to these
general comments, GSA also provided several specific comments to
clarify the report, which we addressed in the body of the report, as
appropriate, or evaluated in appendix II.
DOD Comments:
In its written comments, DOD referred to the report's recommendations
for executive action. DOD stated that it supports initiatives to
improve the reliance, timeliness, and usefulness of real property
inventory information. It also stated that representatives from DOD
were already participating with GSA in redesigning the worldwide
inventory Internet application. Also, DOD said that it had several
projects under way to improve the reliability, timeliness, and
usefulness of DOD's real property data and that DOD is sharing the
results with GSA.
As agreed with your offices, unless you publicly announce the contents
of this report earlier, we will not distribute it until 15 days from
its issue date. At that time, we will send copies of the report to the
appropriate congressional committees, the director of OMB, the
administrator of GSA, the secretary of defense, the secretary of
veterans affairs, the postmaster general, and the secretary of the
treasury. Copies will also be made available to other interested
parties and others on request. Contacts and staff acknowledgments for
this report are included in appendix IV. If you or your staff have any
questions, please contact me at (202) 512-8387 or notify me at
ungarb@gao.gov.
Signed by:
Bernard L. Ungar:
Director, Physical Infrastructure Issues:
[End of section]
Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology:
Our objectives were to determine (1) whether the worldwide inventory
has reliable and useful data on the government's real property assets
and (2) what actions, if any, may be needed to make the worldwide
inventory a useful tool for strategically managing and overseeing
these assets. To meet our first objective, we conducted research to
identify sources of governmentwide real property data. On the basis of
this research, we determined that the worldwide inventory of federally
owned real property maintained by the General Services Administration
(GSA) was the only central source of descriptive information on
federal real property. To gain an understanding of the worldwide
inventory and related annual reports GSA publishes, we interviewed
responsible GSA officials from GSA's Office of Governmentwide Policy
(OGP)”the office in GSA that has responsibility for the inventory. We
also obtained and analyzed the annual reports for fiscal years 1997 to
2000 and GSA's guidance for worldwide inventory reporting. We obtained
information from GSA officials on real property-holding agencies'
performance providing data to GSA for inclusion in the inventory and
related annual reports.[Footnote 37] We then analyzed this information
and determined”for the 4-year period covering fiscal years 1997 to
2000”whether each agency had reported to GSA and if GSA included the
agency's data in the inventory and related reports. We also discussed
technical issues and any related problems with GSA officials and GSA's
contractor for the worldwide inventory.
We also did detailed work at the four agencies that, according to the
worldwide inventory, hold the most property in terms of building
square footage. The four agencies were the Department of Defense
(DOD), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), GSA's Public Buildings
Service (PBS), and United States Postal Service (USPS). At these four
agencies, we interviewed responsible officials about their
interactions with GSA's OGP component for the worldwide inventory
effort. At DOD, we separately interviewed officials from the three
military services (Army, Air Force, and Navy); the U.S. Marine Corps
(USMC); and Washington Headquarters Services (WHS), which manages
DOD's real property in the Washington, D.C., area. According to GSA
officials, the Air Force, Army, Navy, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers'
civilian functions, and WHS each report separately to GSA for the
worldwide inventory. According to GSA officials, USMC data are
included with the Navy's submission. At GSA, we interviewed officials
from PBS about their efforts to provide data to GSA's OGP. At USPS, we
interviewed facilities program support officials from the Office of
Facilities in USPS headquarters and USPS facilities system staff in
St. Louis, MO. At VA, we interviewed officials in VA's Office of
Facilities Management at VA headquarters. Although we are defining
real property as land and facilities, we agreed with our requesters to
focus our work on facilities and facilities-related issues for this
report.
Through interviews with these officials, we were able to determine the
process whereby reporting agencies provide their real property data to
GSA for the worldwide inventory. We focused our attention on analyzing
the process whereby data from different sources are compiled into one
database, how the data are validated, and how the agencies communicate
with GSA. We discussed the level of staff resources devoted to the
effort and agencies' perspectives on the process. We reviewed reports
and other available descriptions of each of the agency's databases,
including Inspectors' General work on real property data issues. In
assessing the reliability of the real property data in the worldwide
inventory database, we asked GSA officials to provide examples of
database errors. We also obtained the worldwide inventory in Oracle
8.0 database format on compact disk from GSA's contractor. We
performed a limited reliability and validity check of the worldwide
inventory database by testing key fields, such as name, address, zip
code, and geographic location of government installations for missing
entries or data that were incorrectly formatted. We also did a general
comparison of asset cost data in the worldwide inventory and asset
cost data in the consolidated financial statement that the Department
of the Treasury (Treasury) compiled for fiscal year 2000. We did not
attempt to reconcile these data.
We also obtained information and the views of agency officials on
several topics related to the worldwide inventory. These topics
included the usefulness of the worldwide inventory, what types of data
should be included in the worldwide inventory database, a description
of the real property reporting process and agencies' real property
databases, validity checks that are done on data for the worldwide
inventory, and human capital issues related to real property
management and worldwide inventory reporting. In addition to officials
from GSA and some of the reporting agencies, we discussed the
worldwide inventory with an Office of Management and Budget (OMB
policy analyst knowledgeable of real property issues.
To identify information on the importance of having quality real
property asset data, we reviewed several recent GAO reports and
testimonies, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance, and
reports done by the National Research Council and Joint Financial
Management Improvement Program. We obtained and analyzed publicly
available information on real property management issues from state
governments including California, Massachusetts, and New York. We also
contacted officials from the states of California and Massachusetts.
We selected these states because literature research indicated that
they were actively involved in developing real-time property
management databases. In addition, we reviewed and analyzed our prior
work on the major challenges that agencies face in the real property
area and reviewed relevant laws, regulations, and proposed legislation.
To meet the second objective, we interviewed GSA officials to identify
the current efforts GSA has under way to make the worldwide inventory
a useful tool for strategically managing and overseeing real property
assets. GSA officials provided us with a summary of a focus group
meeting they held in November 2001 with agencies that report to GSA
for the worldwide inventory. The purpose of the focus group was to
discuss GSA's immediate needs and the management actions that would be
necessary to modernize the worldwide inventory and make certain it is
a valuable real property asset management tool. We also interviewed
officials from GSA's contractor about the capabilities of the new
worldwide inventory Internet application and the potential transition
to a technologically enhanced platform for tracking real property
governmentwide. We received comments on a draft of this report from
GSA, DOD, OMB, and VA. USPS and Treasury had no comments. The comments
we received are discussed near the end of the letter and at the end of
appendix II. GSA's and DOD's written comments are included as
appendixes II and III, respectively. We did our work between June 2001
and February 2002 in accordance with generally accepted government
auditing standards.
[End of section]
Appendix II: Comments from the General Services Administration:
Note: GAO comments supplementing those in the report text appear at
the end of this appendix.
GSA:
GSA Administrator:
U.S. General Services Administration:
1800 F Street, NW:
Washington, DC 20405-0002:
Telephone: (202) 501-0800:
Fax: (202) 219-1243:
[hyperlink, http://www.gsa.gov]
March 27, 2002:
Mr. Bernard L. Ungar:
Director, Physical Infrastructure Issues:
U.S. General Accounting Office:
Washington, DC 20548:
Dear Mr. Ungar:
The General Services Administration has reviewed the General
Accounting Office's (GAO's) draft report entitled "Federal Real
Property: Better Governmentwide Data Needed for Strategic
Decisionmaking" (GAO-02-342).
We appreciate GAO's efforts to focus attention on the value of
accurate real property data to the effective management of assets
governmentwide. The enclosed detailed comments are offered to clarify
the report. [See p.30]
We appreciate the opportunity to comment on your draft report. If you
have any questions or require further information, please contact
David Bibb, Deputy Associate Administrator, Office of Governmentwide
Policy, at 202-501-0856.
Sincerely,
Signed by:
Stephen A. Perry:
Administrator:
Enclosure:
[End of letter]
Agency Comments:
U.S. General Services Administration:
This enclosure will provide general comments on the report and will
then make specific recommendations to improve the report.
General Comments:
The accuracy, reliability, and usability of the real property data
contained in the Worldwide Inventory database have long been a concern
of the General Services Administration (GSA). When the Office of
Governmentwide Policy (OGP) was established in December 1995, the
responsibility for real property data collection was moved to the new
organization. This was done in part to separate the inventory data
collection responsibility from GSA's operational organization, the
Public Buildings Service; and place it within the organization whose
role is to focus on enhancements to the Federal Government's real
property assets at large. The new office's efforts began with the
development of a series of Asset Management Principles, which provide
guidance on maximizing life cycle costs and the effective management
and use of those assets. [See p. 31]
As an outgrowth of the Asset Management Principles, since 1998 the
General Services Administration has aggressively pursued reforms to
the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (Property
Act) in order to promote efficient and effective stewardship in
Federal property asset management. After developing its plans and
clearing them through OMB and the Executive Branch, in 2000 and 2001,
GSA submitted to the Congress major legislative proposals to amend the
Property Act to provide accountable management structures for Federal
landholding agencies, prepare accurate and descriptive information on
Federal agency real property holdings, provide a wide range of new
tools and authorities, and ensure strategic planning processes for
real property that effectively support Federal agency missions. These
bills, authored by GSA, were introduced in 2000 as S. 2805, in 2001 as
S. 1612, and in 2002 as HR 3947. GSA has continued to work with the
Congress to secure passage of this needed legislation. On March 14,
2002, the House Committee on Government Reform unanimously passed HR
3947. We will continue to work with the Congress in an effort to
obtain enactment into law.
Also, the legislative proposal provides for a Senior Real Property
Officer within each Federal landholding agency, who would be the
single point of contact for managing that agency's real property
assets and for providing accurate, reliable and usable real property
data as part of the Worldwide Inventory database. Heretofore, there
has not been such a single point of contact, and the creation of a
Senior Real Property Officer would remedy this situation and improve
the management of Federal real property assets and the accuracy,
reliability and usability of the Worldwide Inventory data.
In addition to specifically support this effort, the Office of
Governmentwide Policy began a major retooling of the Worldwide
Inventory in February 1999. That initiative is underway today. Work so
far has included conducting a Zero-Base Review of the Worldwide
Inventory reporting requirements; reviewing the data elements that are
needed to both support effective real property asset management and to
comply with national accounting standards; reviewing a sampling of
other large asset management systems currently in use by public and
private entities; and adopting observed good practices. [See p. 26]
This retooling effort was launched and continues with the
collaboration of Federal customer agency partners, with the goal of
developing a revised tool that will help individual agencies to better
manage their real property assets and that will be capable of
producing reliable current information about Federal real property
holdings.
Specific Comments:
Page 3 in paragraph 1 - The major problem was not poor communication
between GSA and the reporting agencies, but a lack of dedicated
available resources to commit to collecting and verifying Worldwide
Inventory data. [Now on p. 3; See comment 1]
Page 4 - End of second paragraph under "Results in Brief' beginning
with "we" and ending with "GSA," replace current text and insert the
following new paragraph:
"We are also asking that Congress consider enacting legislation, such
as the legislation already submitted to the Congress by GSA, to
require that Federal landholding agencies be accountable to maintain
and submit accurate descriptive information on Federal agency real
property holdings to GSA to facilitate the preparation of reliable and
uniform worldwide inventory reports. Since early 1999, GSA has pursued
several legislative proposals including S.2805, the "Federal Property
Asset Management Reform Act of 2000," and S. 1612, the "Managerial
Flexibility Act of 2001." [See comment 2 and p. 3]
Page 6, Footnote - We began reviewing the Worldwide Inventory process
in February 1999 by instituting a major retooling of the Worldwide
Inventory. [Now on p. 6; See comment 3]
Page 7 - The Worldwide Inventory database does provide the best-
centralized source of information on Federal real property holdings as
mentioned in the first bullet. While the remaining bulleted items are
potential products of a more robust Worldwide Inventory database,
these are not currently viewed as the intention or purpose of the
current reporting system. [Now on p. 6; See comment 4]
Page 10 - The report states that USPS submitted data in fiscal year
1999. The data were then provided to the contractor supporting the
Worldwide Inventory that year. The contractor was unable to reconcile
the data submission, and as a result used previous year data for the
Report. [See p. 10]
Page 11 - The Air Force data submitted for fiscal year 2000 could not
be accessed, so the contractor used information from the previous
year. The agency was notified by telephone and not by correspondence.
[See p. 10]
Page 11 - Many street address and zip codes were not correctly coded
upon initial data entry into the system, while other data did not
appear because of software upgrades. This unreported data has since
been restored to the database. The majority of incomplete address and
zip code data remaining are a result of incomplete agency submissions.
[See p. 11]
Page 13 - The collaboration referenced between the General Services
Administration and the General Accounting Office in the preparation of
the Worldwide Inventory dates back to the initial Report to Congress
dated March 25, 1955. [See p. 12]
Page 14 - The ability of GSA, as the coordinating agency, and the
individual land holding agencies, as reporting agencies, to
effectively compile the annual data report has always been subject to
dedicated available resources. Hence, GSA and the reporting agencies
would have devoted more effort to compiling data if there were more
dedicated resources available. [See p. 15]
Page 17 - The March 2000 IG report cited a lack of knowledge in regard
to users of the inventory data. At the time of that report, user
information was anecdotal based on user requests. Since then, the
database has become available in an on-line format that provides a
more accurate understanding of the customer agencies being served.
[See p. 16]
Page 23 - As a part of the previously mentioned Zero-Base Worldwide
Inventory Review, one of the goals of the retooling is to allow for
better reconciliation of data from the Worldwide Inventory with that
provided in agency financial statements. [See p. 21]
Page 28 - In the section entitled "Recent legislation initiatives,"
replace the existing paragraph and insert the following new
paragraphs: [See comment 5 and p. 26]
"GSA is aware that problems exist with the accuracy of Federal
landholding agency inventory data submitted for the Worldwide
Inventory reports, and since early 1999 has worked on several
legislative proposals to correct deficiencies in these reports. In
April 2000, GSA legislation was submitted to Congress (S. 2805) that
would require that the head of each landholding agency collect and
maintain a comprehensive descriptive listing of the agency's real
property holdings, and transmit the information to GSA. Furthermore,
GSA would be authorized to establish data and other information
technology standards that Federal agencies would use to develop and
upgrade their real property information systems to ensure uniform
reporting of Government property inventory. A Senior Real Property
Officer (SRPO) would also be established under GSA's proposal. Each
real property holding agency would appoint an agency SRPO executive
that would, among other asset management responsibilities have
accountability for ensuring that the agencies' descriptive
facility information and data are included in the comprehensive
Governmentwide property inventory. However, Congress adjourned before
the session could take further action to enact the bill.
In October 2001, GSA legislation was submitted by the Administration to
Congress (S. 1612) that was similar to S. 2805. The Act provides many
identical provisions for improving the accuracy of information and
data in the Worldwide Inventory. The Act would strengthen the
agencies' reporting requirements for real property data under their
custody and control, and reaffirm the need for a SRPO in each Federal
landholding agency. The SRPOs would continuously monitor the agencies'
real property assets, and maintain a descriptive listing of their real
property assets, and provide this information to GSA for inclusion
into a Governmentwide listing of all Federal real property interests."
Page 32 -The last sentence of paragraph 1 should be revised to begin,
"Furthermore, the proposed GSA Property Reform Act language calls for
providing GSA with specific authority..." [See comment 6]
Page 37 - Ongoing agency input and cooperation were fostered during a
kick-off User's Group meeting held in November 2001 to inform agencies
of the plans to modernize the system. At that meeting, agencies were
invited to participate in a series of monthly Focus Groups, as a means
to obtain customer agency participation and buy-in and to provide
ongoing feedback to the project development team. These Focus Group
meetings have taken place monthly starting in December 2001. [See p.
25]
The following are GAO's comments on GSA's letter dated March 27, 2002.
1. GSA said that the major problem was not poor communication between
GSA and the reporting agencies, but a lack of dedicated available
resources to commit to collecting and verifying worldwide inventory
data. In the report, we identified four problems, one of which was
resource issues at GSA and the reporting agencies. However, we also
noted that reporting agencies”namely the Air Force and VA”said they
were unaware that their worldwide inventory submissions were not used
in certain years. These two agencies alone account for roughly one-
quarter of all federal real property in terms of building square
footage. Thus, we determined that the lack of communication between
GSA and the reporting agencies was another reason for the range of
problems we observed.
2. We did not substitute the text GSA suggested; however, we added
information to the results in brief recognizing that GSA has pursued
reform legislation.
3. GSA suggested that we identify its efforts to retool the worldwide
inventory in a footnote that dealt with the revised worldwide
inventory guidance. GSA's retooling efforts are discussed in full
elsewhere in the report, and we chose not to add this information to
the footnote.
4. GSA stated that the objectives of the worldwide inventory that we
identified were not viewed as the purpose of the current system but
are potential products of a more robust worldwide inventory database.
As we stated in our report, these objectives were contained at 41
C.F.R. Part 101-3, which was the guidance that agencies were expected
to follow for the fiscal years that were within the scope of our
review. Although GSA has recently revised these objectives, the newer
objectives GSA referred to have not yet been applied to a worldwide
inventory reporting cycle. The objectives we identified were in place
for the most recently completed cycle, fiscal year 2000.
5. GSA suggested an alternative to our discussion of recent
legislative initiatives, but we did not substitute GSA's suggested
paragraphs. Instead, we included some of the additional information
GSA provided on its role in developing reform legislation and on the
creation of senior real property officer positions at property-holding
agencies.
6. We did not adopt GSA's suggestion related to the last sentence in
the conclusion because it represents our own independent assessment
regardless of any pending legislation.
[End of section]
Appendix III: Comments from the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense
(Installations and Environment):
Office Of The Under Secretary Of Defense:
Acquisition, Technology And Logistics:
3000 Defense Pentagon:
Washington, DC 20301-3000:
Mr. Barry W. Holman:
Director:
U.S. General Accounting Office:
Washington, DC 20548:
Dear Mr. Holman:
This is the Department of Defense (DOD) response to the General
Accounting Office (GAO) draft report "Federal Real Property ” Better
Governmentwide Data Needed for Strategic Decisionmaking" dated
February 28, 2002 (GAO Code 543000). The Department of Defense concurs
with the content and results of the subject report, but offers the
following comments and suggestions. [See p. 30]
In reference to the recommendations for executive action, the
Department of Defense supports initiatives to improve the reliance,
timeliness and usefulness of real property inventory information.
Representatives from the Department of Defense are already
participating with the General Services Administration (GSA) in
redesigning the Worldwide Inventory Internet Application. DoD
continues to work with GSA to improve its efforts to maintain an
accurate worldwide inventory. Internally, within the Department of
Defense, we have initiated several projects to improve the
reliability, timeliness and usefulness of the Department of Defense's
real property data and are sharing the results of these efforts with
GSA. [See p. 32]
Some additional comments for report clarification and accuracy have
been provided separately.
Sincerely,
Signed by [Illegible] for:
Raymond F. DuBois, Jr.
Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Installations and Environment):
[End of section]
Appendix IV: GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments:
GAO Contacts:
Bernard L. Ungar (202) 512-8387:
Gerald Stankosky (202) 512-5758:
Staff Acknowledgments:
In addition to those named above, Cynthia Bascetta, Christine Bonham,
Brad Dubbs, Walter Gembacz, Barry Holman, Barbara Johnson, Jerome
Sandau, Anne Kidd, Michael Koury, Mark Little, Susan Michal-Smith,
Mary Mohiyuddin, Judy Pagano, Addison Ricks, David Sausville, Jonathan
Tumin, and McCoy Williams also made key contributions to this report.
[End of section]
Footnotes:
[1] For the purposes of this report, we are defining agencies to
include other entities such as the U.S. Postal Service, an independent
establishment in the executive branch, and the Tennessee Valley
Authority, a wholly owned government corporation.
[2] Real property is generally defined as land, facilities, and
anything constructed on, growing on, or attached to land. We have
included information on land in this report; however, our focus in
this report is facilities and facilities-related issues.
[3] 40 U.S.C. § 471 et. seq.
[4] 31 U.S.C. § 331(e).
[5] For federal accounting purposes, there are several types of real
property. The first consists of real property reported on the balance
sheet as part of general property, plant, and equipment (PP&E). The
other types are collectively referred to as stewardship assets, are
not on the balance sheet, and are reported separately. Stewardship
assets include national defense PP&E (assets such as ammunition
bunkers and silos); heritage assets (such as wilderness areas, scenic
river systems, and monuments); and stewardship land, which is any land
not included in general PP&E.
[6] 41 C.F.R. Part 101-3. In November 2001, GSA initiated several
changes to the guidance. These changes which, according to a GSA
official, were initiated to simplify and clarify the regulation,
included revisions to the program objectives. These changes are
discussed later in this report.
[7] According to GSA officials, the Corps of Engineers' civilian
functions report separately from the Corps' military side, which is
reported by the Army.
[8] An example of this is a military base, where the base will have a
unique name and may have hundreds of buildings with different names
that are tied to that installation.
[9] In 1995, GSA created OGP to separate its policy and service
delivery functions. As a consequence, OGP's Real Property Policy
Division was established and was given responsibility for GSA's
governmentwide real property policy activities. GSA's PBS continued
its role in the day-to-day management of over 8,000 federal facilities
GSA owns and leases.
[10] U.S. General Services Administration, Office of the Inspector
General, Review of Real Property Reporting for the Worldwide
Inventory, A000813/O/W/F00006 (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 23, 2000).
[11] U.S. Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for
Installations and Environment, Assessment of DOD Real Property
Information Systems, Aug. 8, 2001.
[12] U.S. General Accounting Office, General Services Administration:
Sustained Attention Required to Improve Performance, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO/GGD-90-14] (Washington, D.C.: Nov. 6,
1989).
[13] U.S. General Accounting Office, Federal Buildings: Actions Needed
to Prevent Further Deterioration and Obsolescence, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO/GGD-91-57] (Washington, D.C.: May 13,
1991).
[14] U.S. General Accounting Office, Federal Buildings: Billions Are
Needed for Repairs and Alterations, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO/GGD-00-98] (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 30,
2000).
[15] U.S. General Accounting Office, General Services Administration:
STAR”PBS' New Program for Tracking and Managing Real Property,
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO/GGD-00-12] (Washington,
D.C.: Oct. 12, 1999).
[16] 31 U.S.C. § 3515 and 31 U.S.C. § 3521.
[17] 31 U.S.C. § 331(e).
[18] On March 29, 2002, Treasury issued its financial report
containing the U.S. Government's consolidated financial statements for
fiscal year 2001, and we again reported that we were unable to express
an opinion.
[19] A material weakness is a condition that precludes an entity's
internal controls from providing reasonable assurance that
misstatements, losses, or noncompliance material in relation to the
financial statements or to stewardship information would be prevented
or detected on a timely basis.
[20] U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Inspector General,
Internal Controls and Compliance with Laws and Regulations for the DOD
Agency-Wide Financial Statements for fiscal year 2000, D-2000-070
(Washington, D.C.: Feb. 28, 2001).
[21] U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Inspector General,
Fiscal Year 2000 Annual Departmental Report on Accountability, U.S.
Department of the Interior, 01-1-257 (Washington, D.C.: Feb. 28, 2001).
[22] The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB)
promulgates GAAP for federal government entities.
[23] U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General,
Audit of the Department of Veterans Affairs Consolidated Financial
Statements for Fiscal Years 2000 and 1999, 00-01702-50 (Washington,
D.C.: Feb. 28, 2001).
[24] The $320 billion represents the gross cost of federal real
property (buildings, structures, facilities, land and land
improvements, and leasehold improvements) used in government
operations.
[25] GSA defines cost as the total acquisition cost, including
capitalized improvements.
[26] U.S. General Accounting Office, Executive Guide: Leading
Practices in Capital Decision-Making, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO/AIMD-99-32] (Washington, D.C.: Dec.
1998).
[27] U.S. General Accounting Office, Federal Real Property: Views on
Management Reform Proposals, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO/T-GGD-00-175] (Washington, D.C.: July
12, 2000).
[28] [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO/GGD-00-98].
[29] U.S. General Accounting Office, Federal Buildings: Funding
Repairs and Alterations Has Been a Challenge”Expanded Financing Tools
Needed, [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-01-452]
(Washington, DC.: Apr. 12, 2001).
[30] U.S. General Accounting Office, Overseas Real Estate: Millions of
Dollars Could Be Generated by Selling Unneeded Real Estate,
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO/NSIAD-96-36] (Washington,
D.C.: Apr. 23, 1996).
[31] U.S. General Accounting Office, General Services Administration:
Status of Efforts to Improve Management of Building Security Upgrade
Program, [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO/T-GGD/OSI-00-19]
(Washington, D.C.: Oct. 7, 1999).
[32] U.S. General Accounting Office, Observations on the General
Services Administration's Fiscal Year 1999 Performance Report and
Fiscal Year 2001 Performance Plan, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO/GGD-00-148R] (Washington, D.C.: June
30, 2000).
[33] U.S. General Accounting Office, Military Infrastructure: Real
Property Management Needs Improvement, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO/NSIAD-99-100] (Washington, D.C.: Sept.
7, 1999).
[34] Title III of the Managerial Flexibility Act of 2001, 107th Cong.
(2001).
[35] The Federal Property Asset Management Reform Act of 2002, 107th
Cong. (2002).
[36] 106th Cong. (2000).
[37] For the purposes of this report, we are defining agencies to
include other entities such as the U.S. Postal Service, an independent
establishment in the executive branch, and the Tennessee Valley
Authority, a wholly owned government corporation. We focused our
review on the 31 major real property-holding agencies that GSA tracks
for the purposes of the worldwide inventory.
[End of section]
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