Federal Real Property: GSA Should Improve Accuracy, Completeness, and Usefulness of Public Data

The lack of reliable data federal property data to support decision making is one of the main reasons Federal Real Property Management remains on GAO's high-risk list. GAO has repeatedly identified reliability issues with the Federal Real Property Profile (FRPP), which is the most comprehensive database of federal real property holdings. GSA has taken actions to improve the reliability of FRPP data but must ultimately rely on agencies to submit correct data. Specifically, in 2016, GSA established its FRPP validation and verification (V&V) process, where GSA provides an annual list of data anomalies to the agencies that entered the data. Agencies have 10 months to research each anomaly and correct errors or validate that the data are correct. GAO selected six federal agencies because they were located in areas with enough questionable data in FRPP to analyze. In 2020, GAO reported that while GSA has identified close to 30,000 potential errors in the FRPP database over the first 2 years of the V&V process, agencies confirmed only 5 percent as errors (1,291 of 28,572). Agencies validated the remaining 27,281 anomalies as correct or left them unresolved. The low number of errors being identified indicates that GSA's V&V process was not efficiently identifying errors in the data, either in terms of the anomaly categories themselves or the thresholds at which GSA flags data as an anomaly. This situation could ultimately mean that agencies spent time researching correct information that was flagged as potentially erroneous or not fully actually researching anomalies and allowing mistakes to remain uncorrected. GAO also found that agencies identified no anomalies as errors for five of GSA's 16 anomaly categories in 2017, raising questions about the anomaly categories GSA has identified. Thresholds lead to a large number of data elements flagged, which can challenge the resources of affected agencies. Officials at two of GAO's selected agencies said that the number of anomalies that the V&V process produced annually overwhelmed their ability to validate the data. The large number of unresolved V&V anomalies appears to support this conclusion. Officials who are responsible for resolving anomalies at two selected agencies said that more realistic anomaly categories or thresholds could reduce the number of anomalies and better target actual errors, an approach that could help agencies better prioritize their resources when researching anomalies. GSA officials said they had not reviewed the anomaly categories or their thresholds to see if they consistently capture incorrect data. In the absence of better information about the validity of categories and thresholds, the current process is taking up limited agency resources without efficiently correcting errors in the data. Therefore, GAO recommended that GSA coordinate with agencies to review Validation and Verification Process' anomaly categories to better target incorrect data. In August 2024, GAO verified that GSA eliminated 10 anomaly categories and narrowed 4 others. GSA agency officials said that they took these actions in response to GAO's recommendation to better target incorrect data. The reduction in the number of anomaly categories will also reduce the number of anomalies that agencies must annually research and help ensure limited agency resources are efficiently spent correcting errors in the data, leading to more reliable real property data to support decision making thereby fulfilling the intent of the recommendation.

The Federal Assets Sale and Transfer Act of 2016 (FASTA) required the GSA to publish a single, comprehensive, and descriptive database of federal real property that would be available to the public. The database could be used for research and other potential applications. In 2020, GAO reported that the resulting public database was not complete in part because GSA decided to withhold 15 categories of data from the public database for all agencies. FASTA authorized the withholding of information from the public database for national security or procurement-related issues. GSA officials who manage the Federal Real Property Profile (FRPP) said that GSA does not have the security or intelligence expertise to issue guidance on national security issues. As a result, they sought input on what information to withhold from the Interagency Security Committee (ISC), which developed physical security policies and standards. ISC reviewed the security risks of FRPP data and provided written recommendations in a memo to GSA in November 2017. Specifically, ISC recommended that certain categories of data on assets be withheld from the public database because of the security risk that they could pose individually or in combination. GSA chose to withhold 15 FRPP data categories, including property name, annual operating costs, annual maintenance costs, and replacement value categories for all assets from the public database. GSA did this without consulting the relevant agencies on this decision, considering the specific sensitivity of these categories for all assets, or assessing the effect withholding them would have on the database. As a result, the public database was incomplete in ways that adversely affected users and limited agencies' public accountability for reporting accurate information. For example, identifying assets in the public database is difficult without the property's name-one of the data categories GSA withheld. Property names are often already in the public sphere and four stakeholders considered it one of the most important data categories for analyzing federal real property. ISC officials acknowledged that the memo that they prepared for GSA could have been clearer as to ISC's intent that departments and agencies should consider the recommendations in making a final determination. According to ISC officials, they believed that implementation would involve GSA communicating these recommendations and leaving decisions on what to withhold to officials within individual departments and agencies who control real property assets. ICS further recommended that GSA not withhold from the public database information already in the public sphere. Therefore, GAO recommended that GSA consult with agencies to determine which, if any, data should be withheld from public release. In August 2024, GSA said that they had consulted with the federal agencies to reassess what data, if any, should be withheld from the public database. GSA officials said that agencies agreed to start including many of the categories in the public database because they were not necessary for national security and were often available to the public through other sources. GAO verified that the property name, annual operating costs, annual maintenance costs, and replacement value categories are now included in the 2023 version of the public database. These additions fulfill the intent of GAO's recommendation by making the public database more complete and useful without compromising national security.

In 2016, the Federal Assets Sale and Transfer Act (FASTA) directed GSA to publish a single, comprehensive, and descriptive database of federal real property that would be available to the public, while allowing it to exclude assets for reasons of national security. The database could be used for research and other potential applications. In 2020, GAO reported that the public database GSA published-a version of the Federal Real Property Profile database-was not complete because agencies decided not to provide certain useful information. For example, FCC withheld all its real property assets even though FCC's own website and regulations list the locations and functions of FCC offices. In addition, the U.S. Coast Guard withheld information on its public-recruiting offices and lighthouses that it advertises on its public website. Interagency Security Committee (ISC), consisting of 60 federal departments and agencies, officials told GAO that this was appropriate for GSA to withhold agency real property data because individual departments and agencies that control real property assets should determine what information to withhold. GSA provided agencies instructing agencies to consult ISC's mission criticality criteria and any additional internal agency criteria in determining what information to withhold from public release. ISC's criteria provided a one-page list of uses of real property assets that warrant consideration for national security exclusion but did not provide other instructions for agencies to consult while making decisions on what to withhold. OMB Circular-Management of Reporting and Data Integrity Risk further instructed agencies take a risk-based approach toward meeting reporting objectives. ISC recommended that GSA not withhold from the public database information already in the public sphere. GSA's instructions to agencies at the time lacked specifics to help agencies apply a consistent, risk-based approach in determining which, if any, assets or asset-specific information should be withheld from public release. Withholding information that is already publicly available unnecessarily reduces the completeness and utility of the public database that FASTA indicated should be comprehensive. Therefore, GAO recommended that GSA should instruct each agency to apply a consistent, risk-based approach in determining which, if any, assets or asset-specific information should be withheld from public release. In August 2024, GAO confirmed that GSA had worked with ISC to clarify what information agencies should withhold from the public. The resulting ISC memo clarified how agencies should decide what data they withhold from the public by recommending that agencies take a consistent, risk-based approach by considering, among other things, if the facility or installation was closed to the public and if the information is already available in the public. GSA then included these instructions in its updated user guide for the Federal Real Property Profile database in 2021. Clarifying these instructions will help agencies make more consistent, risk-based decisions that can increase the completeness and usefulness of the data consistent with FASTA, which meets the intent of GAO's recommendation.

The Federal Assets Sale and Transfer Act of 2016 (FASTA) required the General Services Administration (GSA) to publish a single, comprehensive, and descriptive database of federal real property that would be available to the public. The database could be used for research and other potential applications. In 2020, GAO reported that the resulting public database GSA published was not complete, in part, because federal agencies decided not to provide certain useful information. FASTA required GSA to develop a comprehensive database and provide the public with database access, but recognized the importance of protecting national security. In that respect, a key organizational issue faced by GSA and agencies is how to present data for reporting assets on campuses that are not accessible to the public. While non-disclosure is permitted, such actions to withhold this information may reduce the usefulness of the public database as a whole. In 2020, GAO reported that it was difficult for a user of the public database to determine when assets were located on a secure installation that the public cannot access. For example, assets located at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center are listed individually, with no indication that the assets are all located on a secure installation. The public database lists all 215 assets at the same location-Greenbelt Road in Greenbelt, MD, but provides no further indication that the assets are part of a larger, secure facility. GSA requires civilian agencies to report individual assets, including those on secure installations. Detailed, asset-specific information could be useful for government decision makers, and GSA applied this approach to the public database. However, listing assets individually could prompt fruitless public interest in inaccessible secure facilities. According to officials on a secure installation GAO visited, reporting individual buildings does not make sense because there are few, if any, legitimate reasons for public interest in the individual assets on a secure installation. The Department of Defense (DOD) takes a different approach for its secure military bases in the public database. According to GSA officials, DOD submits a separate summary-level report for public release. This summary-level information shields sensitive information and alerts users that those assets are not accessible or of use to private-sector interests. Civilian agencies' assets located on closed federal installations are similar to those on DOD bases in that the public may have less interest in or reason for knowing about assets that are not available to the public. Officials from NASA and two DHS bureaus said that the installation-level approach to reporting would be more appropriate for their circumstances than the asset-level reporting currently applied to civilian agencies and would likely allow them to release more information to the public. Therefore, GAO recommended that GSA allow agencies to provide summary data for secure installations. GSA officials said that they allowed agencies to provide summary data for secure installations and started reporting that summary level data for 12,757 installations to the public on August 14, 2024. GAO independently verified that this summary level data is now available to the public. Adding this summary level data to the public fulfills this recommendation by making the data more complete and useful.

In 2016, legislation required GSA to publish a single, comprehensive, and descriptive database of federal real property that would be available to the public. In response to the legislation, GSA created a public database-a subset of the Federal Real Property Profile's 398,000 real property assets-and made it publicly available in 2017. In 2020, GAO reported, however, that six of the 14 private sector stakeholders GAO interviewed were not aware of the public database, including a stakeholder who confused it with GSA's Lease Inventory database. Several selected stakeholders-regardless of whether or not they had used the database-cited concerns about the usefulness of the data. The lack of a single location on GSA's website that contains information about all of GSA's real property databases may contribute to the awareness, confusion, and usefulness issues expressed by these stakeholders. Specifically, the public access points to the public database, GSA's Lease Inventory database, and two other publicly available real-property databases were located in four different places on GSA's website. GSA officials agreed that there could be clearer links and said that they planned to add them based on GAO's findings. Without a consolidated webpage or clear links showing how the databases relate to each other and how to access each database, users of the various databases may not be aware of what databases do exist to search for assets that could be available to the public. Therefore, GAO recommended that GSA link all of its publicly available real property data sources. In November 2020, GAO confirmed that GSA had created a single entry point for its real property data. As a result, GSA has enhanced public access to the agency's real property databases that, in turn, should improve their usefulness and public awareness.