OMB memo M-17-08 also revises policies on reducing the “footprint” of federal agencies–issued in response to numerous reports criticizing the government for being slow or unable to dispose of unneeded property–which it says have reduced office and warehouse space reductions by nearly 25 million square feet, for an estimated cost avoidance of $300 million starting in 2016 and in all future years.

Under the memo:

“Agencies must move aggressively to identify, declare, and dispose of excess properties and surplus properties and make more efficient use of real property assets. Agencies should prioritize disposal of entire federal campuses or portions of federal campuses that can be sold or conveyed to local government through public benefit conveyance to support local economic redevelopment.

“Agencies should continue their work to implement the National Strategy for the Efficient Use of Real Property and its companion policy, Reduce the Footprint, to consolidate properties, increase property utilization, and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their portfolios for cost and mission delivery. As a part of this initiative, agencies should identify and implement enhancements to their real property planning procedures to build capability for project prioritization, budget formulation, program execution, and strategic planning to ensure program budget allocation delivers the greatest benefit for mission capability and efficiency.

“Agencies should continually improve the accuracy and completeness of the data they submit annually to the Federal Real Property Profile database to ensure the data is supportive of data driven decision-making. Agencies should systematically evaluate year over year improvement to their FRPP data by establishing data quality performance metrics that can be used to identify and correct data quality issues.”

FEDweek Newsletter
Veteran insight on your federal pay, benefits, career and retirement!
Share