National Transportation Safety Board: Observations on the Draft Business Plan for NTSB's Training Center

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) opened a training center in 2003 to train its investigators and others from the transportation community on accident investigation techniques. As GAO reported last year, NTSB's training center is not cost-effective, as its revenues, when combined with the external training costs NTSB staff avoid by using the center, do not cover its costs. In fact, in fiscal year 2006, costs exceeded revenues by $2.7 million. We concluded that potential strategies to increase revenues or decrease costs could increase the cost-effectiveness of the training center; however, vacating the space may be the strategy that reduces costs the most. On December 21, 2006, Congress passed Public Law 109-443, requiring NTSB to prepare a utilization plan for the training center that would, among other things, consider other revenue-generating measures, such as subleasing the training center to another entity; include a detailed financial statement covering current training center expenses and revenues and an analysis of the projected expenses and revenues; and submit the plan to us for review and comment within 90 days of passage of the act. NTSB prepared a draft business plan for the training center and provided the draft to us on March 28, 2007. We are mandated to review and comment on the draft plan so that NTSB can submit a final plan to Congress within 180 days of the enactment of Public Law 109-443. In reviewing and commenting on the draft business plan, we are addressing the following questions: (1) To what extent are relevant marketing and financial data and assumptions included in the plan? (2) Based on the available information, is the plan likely to achieve its objective of self-sufficient operation of the training center by the end of fiscal year 2010?