This provision would make federal agencies with real property holdings accountable for the management and oversight of their real property assets. We envision that the senior real property officers would work together with three other senior agency officials—the chief financial officer (CFO), the chief information officer (CIO), and the head of human resources—to integrate the strategic planning and management of facilities, financial management, technology, and human capital to ensure that the agencies’ asset management plans are linked to the agencies’ overall missions and strategic plans. 3947 would require the GSA administrator to establish and maintain a single, comprehensive, and descriptive inventory database of all real property interests under the custody and control of each federal agency. This week we reported that GSA’s worldwide inventory of federal real property contained data that were unreliable and of limited usefulness. Without quality data, decisionmakers have difficulty strategically managing and budgeting for such significant real property management issues as deteriorating federal buildings, disposal of underutilized and unneeded properties, and the protection of people and facilities. The proposed enhanced asset management tools and other asset management tools currently available for real property management will also need to be carefully evaluated to ensure that they provide the best economic value and outcome for the government. Under the bill, agencies would be authorized reimbursement for their costs of disposing of their property. In considering whether to allow federal agencies to retain the proceeds from real property transactions, it is important for Congress to ensure that it retains appropriate control and oversight over these funds, including the ability to redistribute the funds to accommodate changing needs if necessary.
What GAO Found

The Federal Property Asset Management Reform Act of 2002, will enhance federal real and personal property management and bring the policies and business practices of federal agencies into the 21st century. Available data show that the federal government owns hundreds of thousands of properties worldwide, including military installations, office buildings, laboratories, courthouses, embassies, postal facilities, national parks, forests, and other public lands, estimated to be worth billions of dollars. Most of this government-owned real property is under the custody and control of eight agencies--the Department of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior, and Veterans Affairs; General Services Administration; the Tennessee Valley Authority; and the U.S. Postal Service. Federal property managers have a large deferred maintenance backlog, obsolete and underutilized properties, and changing facility needs due to rapid advances in technology. It is important that real property-holding agencies link their real property strategic plans to their missions and related capital management and performance plans; ensure that senior real property officers have the knowledge, skills, and expertise needed to effectively perform their duties; are accountable for the reliability, usefulness, and timeliness of their data; and adopt an effective process to monitor and evaluate any management tool authorized by the bill. It is equally important that GSA provides written guidance to agencies on the development of their business and asset management plans and that Congress provide appropriate control and oversight of intended and actual use of the funds retained from real property transactions.