The CFO Council has sent guidance on complying with an OMB directive requiring the collection of data to support the calculation of office space utilization rates.
Agencies with CFOs—Cabinet departments and large independent agencies–must report personnel data from December 2016 through February 3, 2017, to be used in creating their real property efficiency plans required by the administration’s March 2015 “reduce the footprint” directive, it said.
The “controller alert” notes that OMB memo 2015-2 states that the measure of square feet per person “has proven to be an invaluable resource to assess real property efficiency and identify consolidation and disposal opportunities.” Further, that metric became a required Federal Real Property Profile data element in fiscal year 2015 and it now must be reported annually, the alert says.
“Close coordination and support among agencies’ chief human capital officers, senior real property officers, and chief financial officers is critical to collect a complete and accurate personnel data set. Your agency should begin internal coordination now to identify the most efficient and cost effective method(s) to collect and report this data,” it says.
GSA will send detailed collection and reporting instruction in the coming weeks, it adds.
In a related message, the CFO council noted that under the reduce the footprint policy, certain ways of disposing of property now count toward a square foot reduction for an agency. These include loss due to disaster, reversion to prior owner, loss due to training exercise, and return to host nation/tribe, it said, in addition to those initially designated, such as public benefit conveyance, transfer, sale, and demolition.