The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act enacted last year added substantial funding for projects under the GSA’s Public Buildings Service but also created challenges for the agency including the need for additional project managers and contracting officers, an IG report has said.
Among the allocations in that law was some $3.4 billion in open-ended funding for acquisition, construction and repair and alteration of the roughly 100 land ports of entry under GSA control.
Said the report, “Project managers and contracting officers play critical roles in the delivery of construction projects like those PBS plans to fund through the IIJA. In addition to keeping projects on schedule and budget, project managers must comply with hundreds of laws, rules, regulations, and policies, and be able to meet the customer agency’s goals and requirements. Likewise, contracting officers must ensure contracts are awarded at fair and reasonable prices in accordance with acquisition laws, the Federal Acquisition Regulation, and GSA- and PBS-specific acquisition policies and procedures.”
However, it said that GSA already has trouble maintaining the level of staffing needed for its existing work, with a loss of about 560 project management staff, more than 12 percent, since September of last year. “PBS also faces gaps in guidance, training, and experience levels for its project management staff” that contributed to problems the IG previously identified, including that the PBS “improperly designated project managers to serve as contracting officers’ representatives even though the project managers were not certified to do so.”
Issues related to training and experience have led to findings that contracting officers did not “understand their responsibilities when awarding and administering contracts in accordance with applicable requirements” and that they “ violated federal competition requirements and failed to adequately establish price reasonableness for major construction and modernization projects,” it said.
The report cited other challenges for GSA in allocating the infrastructure law’s funding, including preventing and detecting fraud; managing potential project delays and cost overruns due to supply chain problems and inflation; preparing and maintaining complete and accurate documentation; awarding effective construction contracts; and ensuring that contractors meet applicable security requirements.
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