Properly managing its portfolio of some 9,000 owned or leased office buildings for other federal agencies and making sure those buildings are properly secured are two of the main challenges facing the GSA, the IG at that agency has said.
At a House hearing, IG Carol Fortine Ochoa pointed to recent audits concluding that GSA did not have facility security assessment reports for most of the buildings sampled, and that facilities are at risk of unauthorized access due to problems with managing personal identity verification cards for contractor and federal employees and due to lack of tracking of contractor employee background checks.
“The OIG is actively engaged in additional work surrounding the security and safety of federal facilities. For instance, we have an ongoing audit to determine whether child care centers in GSA controlled facilities are adequately protected from violence, fire, and life safety concerns,” she said.
Other property management challenges she cited include maximizing competition in leasing, controlling lease costs by reducing reliance on holdovers and extensions, property disposals and exchanges, and selecting spaces to be consolidated and renovated under the Reduce the Footprint initiative.
