Federal Facilities Acquisition and Management: Issues for Planning

Trends are underway which indicate that both military and civilian acquisition of facilities will increase rather dramatically in the near future, with a corresponding increase in the inventory of facilities the Government will be operating and maintaining. Cost estimates of the proposed construction run into multibillion dollars. The Comptroller General has assigned primary audit responsibility for GAO review of Federal agencies' facilities acquisition and management to the Procurement, Logistics, and Readiness Division. This study describes the Division's objectives in its reviews of Federal facilities acquisition and management. Critical questions which GAO feels need to be answered include: (1) whether improvements can be made in the acquisition of Federal design and construction to control or reduce costs; (2) whether Federal agencies are doing an effective job in operating and maintaining their facilities; (3) how effective current policies, procedures, and practices are for identifying and economically disposing of excess and surplus real property; (4) how agency leasing procedures and practices can be improved; (5) whether improvements can be made in the way Federal agencies identify and justify facility needs; (6) how accurate the Government agencies' estimates of costs and savings for facility realignments, phase-downs, consolidations, or closures are; (7) whether new and innovative concepts and techniques relative to the design and construction of buildings are being applied in the acquisition of Federal buildings; and (8) what the results have been of the Government policy to locate Federal facilities in urban central business districts.