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Open Recommendations (16 total)

GSA Commercial Platforms Program: Opportunities Exist to Improve Implementation

GAO-23-106128
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
General Services Administration The Administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA) should ensure that the Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service develops a plan to formalize its manufacturer part number efforts intended to help ensure AbilityOne products are procured in lieu of their essentially the same counterparts. (Recommendation 1)
Open

 Actions to satisfy the intent of the recommendation have not been taken or are being planned.
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

GSA Commercial Platforms Program: Opportunities Exist to Improve Implementation

GAO-23-106128
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
General Services Administration The Administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA) should ensure that the Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, in consultation with the Small Business Administration, develops a more efficient process to enable participating agencies to include small business spend on the commercial platforms toward their small business goals. (Recommendation 2)
Open

 Actions to satisfy the intent of the recommendation have not been taken or are being planned.
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Federal Real Property: GSA Should Include Community Input Requirements to Help Fulfill Design Excellence Program Goals

GAO-23-106139
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
General Services Administration The Administrator of the General Services Administration should ensure that the Commissioner of the Public Buildings Service updates the Design Excellence Manual to include requirements for obtaining and considering community input on building design, including architectural style. (Recommendation 1)
Open

 Actions to satisfy the intent of the recommendation have not been taken or are being planned.
GSA concurred with the recommendation and said it would develop a plan to address it. When we confirm what actions GSA has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Federal Real Property: GSA Should Leverage Lessons Learned from New Sale and Transfer Process

GAO-23-104815
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
General Services Administration
Priority Rec.
This is a priority recommendation.
The Administrator of the GSA, in consultation with relevant stakeholders, should develop a process to collect, share, and apply lessons learned from the implementation of FASTA to improve the final 2024 round and future disposal efforts, including reporting any lessons learned through this process, to Congress. (Recommendation 1)
Open – Partially Addressed

 Actions that partially satisfy the intent of the recommendation have been taken.
In March 2023, GAO confirmed that GSA compiled an initial list of lessons learned, including a discussion of underlying assumptions, structural issues, and challenges implementing the FASTA process. While GSA officials noted continuous coordination with stakeholders throughout the FASTA process, the extent to which GSA consulted with stakeholders to develop this initial list is unclear. GSA also did not solicit feedback from stakeholders on the lessons learned that have been identified to date. GAO will continue to monitor GSA's progress to address this recommendation.

Privacy: Dedicated Leadership Can Improve Programs and Address Challenges

GAO-22-105065
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
General Services Administration The Administrator of GSA should establish a time frame for fully defining a process for ensuring that the senior agency official for privacy or other designated privacy official is involved in assessing and addressing the hiring, training, and professional development needs of the agency with respect to privacy, and document that process. (Recommendation 46)
Open

 Actions to satisfy the intent of the recommendation have not been taken or are being planned.
The General Services Administration stated that it agreed with our recommendation and was developing plans to address it. As of February 2023, GSA had provided documents related to capacity assessment for evidence building and evaluation, but it was not clear how these related to workforce assessment. We are following up with GSA to collect additional information in order to determine whether implementation has occurred.

Privacy: Dedicated Leadership Can Improve Programs and Address Challenges

GAO-22-105065
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
General Services Administration
Priority Rec.
This is a priority recommendation.
The Administrator of GSA should fully define and document the role of the senior agency official for privacy or other designated privacy official in reviewing and approving system categorizations, overseeing privacy control assessments, and reviewing authorization packages. (Recommendation 47)
Open

 Actions to satisfy the intent of the recommendation have not been taken or are being planned.
The General Services Administration stated that it agreed with our recommendation and was developing plans to address it. As of February 2023, GSA provided updated privacy policies; however, they did not include detailed procedures for how the senior agency official for privacy or other officials are to be involved in the authorization process. We are following up with GSA to collect additional information and verify whether implementation has occurred.

Federal Real Property: GSA Could Further Support Agencies' Post-Pandemic Planning for Office Space Use

GAO-22-105105
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
General Services Administration
Priority Rec.
This is a priority recommendation.
The Administrator of the GSA should develop a plan to broadly share with federal agencies, including those that do not use GSA services, information learned from GSA's pilots and other space utilization data collection efforts. (Recommendation 1).
Open – Partially Addressed

 Actions that partially satisfy the intent of the recommendation have been taken.
In February 2023, GSA took several steps to broadly share information on space utilization data, including pilot programs, through updates to the GSA website and a quarterly newsletter. However, GSA does not have a process to determine whether efforts to publicize this information are reaching agencies that do not use GSA's services. In addition, because pilot programs are ongoing, GSA has not yet shared detailed information on the costs and benefits of different methods for collecting space utilization data. GAO will continue to monitor GSA's progress to address this recommendation.

Federal Personal Property: Better Internal Guidance and More Action from GSA Are Needed to Help Agencies Maximize Use of Excess

GAO-22-104626
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
General Services Administration
Priority Rec.
This is a priority recommendation.
The Administrator of the General Services Administration should assess its current efforts to promote the maximum use of excess personal property and take further actions that could increase the use of excess personal property; such actions could include promoting additional policies or methods that will help agencies implement guidance to provide assurance that excess property is considered before purchasing new. (Recommendation 6)
Open

 Actions to satisfy the intent of the recommendation have not been taken or are being planned.
The General Services Administration (GSA) agreed with this recommendation. In February 2023, GSA convened the first meeting of an inter-agency working group to assess how agencies acquire personal property, uncover obstacles, and recommend improvements to policies and guidance for acquisition professionals. GSA also said it met with offices within GSA to understand how they promote excess personal property as the first source of supply. These actions will help inform GSA's internal action plan to address the recommendation. GSA anticipates finalizing working group recommendations by June 2023. We will continue to monitor GSA's efforts to address this recommendation.

Federal Real Property: GSA Should Improve Accuracy, Completeness, and Usefulness of Public Data

GAO-20-135
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2 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
General Services Administration The Administrator of GSA should coordinate with agencies to review V&V anomaly categories to better target incorrect data. (Recommendation 2)
Open – Partially Addressed

 Actions that partially satisfy the intent of the recommendation have been taken.
On August 4, 2023, GAO verified that GSA had partnered with the Office of Management and Budget to create an agency scorecard for federal agencies that tracks five metrics related to data reliability. GAO reviewed the scorecard and found a metric that relates to agency efforts to resolve V&V anomalies. It shows that the Department of Defense has not resolved its anomalous data in timely. GAO will continue to monitor GSA's efforts to improve the V&V process and agencies' responses to those efforts.
General Services Administration The Administrator of GSA should work in consultation with agencies to determine which, if any, data should be withheld from public release. (Recommendation 3)
Open

 Actions to satisfy the intent of the recommendation have not been taken or are being planned.
In August 2023, GSA indicated that it has established procedures for controlled, unclassified information (CUI) since the last revision of the FRPP Data Dictionary. GSA officials said that they would work with their partners to determine if the current guidance effectively addresses this recommendation. GAO agreed to revisit the recommendation in spring 2024.
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