Federal Real Property: Most Public Benefit Conveyances Used as Intended, but Opportunities Exist to Enhance Federal Oversight
GAO-06-511
Published: Jun 21, 2006. Publicly Released: Jul 21, 2006.
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Highlights
Under the public benefit conveyance (PBC) program, state or local governments and certain nonprofits can obtain surplus real property for public uses. The General Services Administration (GSA) has responsibility for the program but has delegated authority to the Department of Defense (DOD) for properties disposed of as part of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process. Several "sponsoring agencies" ensure that properties are used as agreed to by grantees. GAO (1) determined the number, types, and locations of PBC properties disposed of in fiscal years 2000 through 2004, (2) assessed efforts to ensure that the properties are used as agreed to, and (3) identified any challenges facing agencies and grantees.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| General Services Administration | Because GSA is the federal agency with primary responsibilities for the PBC program under the Property Act, the Administrator of GSA should coordinate with DOD and each of the sponsoring agencies to ensure that PBC property data are reliable and consistent between agencies for the purposes of effective management, oversight, and accountability. These data should include, at a minimum, a unique identifying code or name and pertinent data related to each property such as location, type, sponsoring agency, grantee, reversion status, if applicable, the property's compliance history, and other relevant information, as appropriate. This effort to improve the data could be accomplished as part of, or in conjunction with, the federal real property profile initiative already underway. | GSA reports coordinating with DOD and the sponsoring agencies in the development of its new inventory and case tracking system, RediNet. The RediNet system will include PBC sponsoring agency reports and data, and is scheduled to be deployed in September of 2007. In addition, the recommendation was addressed in substantive discussions held at the 28-29 March 2007 Sponsoring Agency Roundtable Meeting. The meeting minutes report a consensus decision where 1) sponsoring agencies have primary responsibility for maintaining updated grantee information; 2) GSA will provide information from Net Real and RediNet to sponsoring agencies for data sharing, inventory and information accuracy... verification.
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| Department of Education | The Administrator of GSA, and the Secretaries of Education, the Interior, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Transportation should take actions they deem appropriate to better ensure that their agencies' current compliance monitoring policies are followed. | In 2006, we found that the 8 executive departments responsible for sponsoring the 12 types of public benefit conveyances (PBC) of surplus federal property did not always ensure that their compliance monitoring policies were followed. Staff responsible for administering the PBC program at several of the agencies with large PBC portfolios cited limited staffing and budgetary resources as the reasons behind their reported difficulties in performing compliance monitoring. Despite inconsistent compliance monitoring by the responsible agencies, we found that most of the properties we reviewed--including those managed by the Department of Education--were being used as agreed to by the grantee....
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development | The Administrator of GSA, and the Secretaries of Education, the Interior, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Transportation should take actions they deem appropriate to better ensure that their agencies' current compliance monitoring policies are followed. |
HUD has not provided information on whether this recommendation has been implemented.
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| Department of Health and Human Services | The Administrator of GSA, and the Secretaries of Education, the Interior, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Transportation should take actions they deem appropriate to better ensure that their agencies' current compliance monitoring policies are followed. |
HHS provided a description of steps the department has taken to implement this recommendation. On the basis of this information, GAO considers this recommendation to be closed and implemented.
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| Department of the Interior | The Administrator of GSA, and the Secretaries of Education, the Interior, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Transportation should take actions they deem appropriate to better ensure that their agencies' current compliance monitoring policies are followed. | The efforts described by Interior's Historic Surplus Property Program (HSPP) and Federal Lands to Parks Program (FLPP) warrant closing this recommendation because they indicate that Interior agrees with the spirit of the recommendation and has taken actions deemed appropriate. HSPP reports that despite Assistant Secretary Thomas Weimer's comments to GAO on 20 June 2006 stating DOI would readily work with GSA and DOD in any efforts to improve the program including compliance monitoring, it continues to be unable to undertake site visits in accordance with the 1983 NPS "Surplus Property Compliance Policy." HSPP attributes this condition to the fact that NPS receives no funding for the HSPP...
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| Department of Transportation | The Administrator of GSA, and the Secretaries of Education, the Interior, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Transportation should take actions they deem appropriate to better ensure that their agencies' current compliance monitoring policies are followed. | In 2006, we found that the 8 executive departments responsible for sponsoring the 12 types of public benefit conveyances (PBC) of surplus federal property did not always ensure that their compliance monitoring policies were followed. Staff responsible for administering the PBC program at several of the agencies with large PBC portfolios cited limited staffing and budgetary resources as the reasons behind their reported difficulties in performing compliance monitoring. Despite inconsistent compliance monitoring by the responsible agencies, we found that most of the properties we reviewed--including those subject to the Maritime Administration (MARAD), a component within the Department of...
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| General Services Administration | The Administrator of GSA, and the Secretaries of Education, the Interior, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Transportation should take actions they deem appropriate to better ensure that their agencies' current compliance monitoring policies are followed. |
GSA reports discussing the recommendation with sponsoring agencies during the Sponsoring Agency Roundtable discussion held 28-29 March 2007. Meeting minutes demonstrate that substantive discussions were held that identified problems (limited resources, seasonal inspection window, non-cooperative grantees). The resulting consensus decision proposed a possible legislative solution in which funding for compliance monitoring would be drawn from abrogation proceeds and the possibility of compliance monitoring assistance from GSA.
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| General Services Administration | The Administrator of GSA should coordinate with DOD and sponsoring agencies to give consideration to developing uniform standards and guidance for the PBC program to address inconsistencies, as appropriate. Such an effort could include, for example, standard policies and procedures for compliance site inspections and utilization reports, a determination of the appropriate frequency of compliance site inspections and utilization reports, and standard criteria and processes for reversions of property to the government. | GSA reported substantive discussions of this recommendation at the Sponsoring Agency Roundtable discussion held 28-29 March 2007. Meeting minutes included a consensus statement that said, given the wide variation in PBC use types, uniform standards in the implementation, administration and management of the program [currently] exist to the extent that is practical: i.e., steps involved in conveying properties for PBC follow a consistent path, time frames for screening notices requiring letter of interest are consistent across the various PBC use types, as are also submittal of applications and post-conveyance compliance inspections. Meeting minutes also state that the redesigned GSA...
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| General Services Administration | The Administrator of GSA should coordinate and work with DOD and sponsoring agencies to develop strategies for addressing various challenges facing agencies and grantees. These include the need to allocate sufficient resources to manage the program and to improve communication about the program's legal complexities, the reversion process, and the characteristics of individual properties. This effort could be done in conjunction with, or as part of, the recommendation to develop uniform standards and guidance for the program. |
GSA reported substantive discussions of this recommendation at the Sponsoring Agency Roundtable discussion held 28-29 March 2007. It stated that is has improved communication about the PBC programs and properties, enhance the Property Disposal Resource Center and will now have the means to better allocate resources to the program.
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Topics
Federal property managementNoncomplianceProgram managementProperty disposalReal propertySurplus propertyPolicies and proceduresPublic benefit conveyanceFederal real propertyRecreation areas