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Federal Energy Management: GSA's Recovery Act Program Is on Track, but Opportunities Exist to Improve Transparency, Performance Criteria, and Risk Management

GAO-10-630 Published: Jun 16, 2010. Publicly Released: Jun 16, 2010.
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Highlights

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) provided the General Services Administration (GSA) with $5.55 billion to invest in federal buildings and promote economic recovery. This funding includes $4.5 billion to convert buildings to high-performance green buildings (HPGB), which seek to reduce energy and water use, among other goals. GAO was asked to address the (1) steps GSA has taken to implement the program and make its Recovery Act projects transparent to the public, (2) extent to which GSA's Recovery Act projects are helping the agency convert buildings to HPGB and addressing federal energy and water conservation requirements and goals, and (3) extent to which GSA has identified potential risks to its Recovery Act program and developed strategies to mitigate those risks. GAO reviewed GSA documents and relevant laws and executive orders, and interviewed GSA officials at headquarters and staff for 12 projects, which varied in type, size, and location.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
General Services Administration Consistent with GSA's Recovery Act transparency goal of providing the public with an understanding of how its tax dollars are being spent, the GSA Administrator should make information on the nature of the work being conducted and its expected outcome publicly available for each Recovery Act project.
Closed – Implemented
In June 2010, we reported on GSA's plans and efforts related to the use of Recovery Act funds. We found that GSA had provided information on the goals of its Recovery Act program, the projects selected to receive Recovery Act funding, and its own progress in obligating and expending Recovery Act funding, but that it had not included details on the nature of the work being conducted on individual projects or clearly identified or explained why it had added or removed projects from its program in GSA's project plan revisions. We recommended that GSA make information on the nature of the work being conducted and its expected outcome publicly available for each Recovery Act project. In response, since June 2011, GSA has posted project descriptions of its Recovery Act funded projects to its external Recovery Act website, www.gsa.gov/recovery. The descriptions were incorporated into the Federal Buildings Fund Investments map, an interactive map which graphically depicts GSA Recovery Act obligations and expenditures by state and project. As a result, GSA has enhanced the transparency of its Recovery Act program by providing the public with the information it needs to discern what individual projects entail, how funds are being spent and hold GSA accountable.
General Services Administration To reduce the environmental and energy impacts of transportation through site designs that support a full range of transportation choices for users of buildings, the GSA Administrator should revise the minimum performance criteria (MPC) to require that project managers consider transportation-related improvements for Recovery Act projects, as appropriate.
Closed – Implemented
In 2010, we reported on GSA's plans and efforts related to the use of Recovery Act funds, including $4.5 billion to convert buildings to high-performance green buildings, which seek to reduce energy and water use, among other goals. We found that GSA had set minimum performance criteria (MPC) for its projects, such as reducing energy use by 30 percent. However, the criteria did not include reducing the energy and environmental impacts of transportation through building location and site design, which is part of the statutory definition of a high-performance green building that GSA was to use when converting existing buildings. As a result, GSA project managers may not have systematically considered transportation-related improvements because they were not included in the agency's criteria. Based on this finding, we recommended that the GSA Administrator revise the MPC to require that project managers consider transportation-related improvements for Recovery Act projects, as appropriate. In response, in 2011, GSA completed development of criteria for Recovery Act projects pertaining to reducing the energy and environmental impacts of transportation. These criteria include considerations such as incorporating design strategies to increase tenants' use of commuting alternatives to single occupancy vehicles and minimizing onsite automobile parking. In addition, GSA integrated these criteria in its mandatory facilities standards that it continues to use in programming and designing projects for its buildings. As a result, GSA's project managers are able to reduce the environmental and energy impacts of transportation through site designs that support a full range of transportation choices for users of GSA's buildings in conformance with high-performance green building standards.
General Services Administration To ensure that steps are being taken to identify and plan for project-level risks, the GSA Administrator should require Recovery Act project management staff to complete risk planning documents.
Closed – Implemented
In June 2010, we reported on GSA's plans and efforts related to the use of Recovery Act funds. We found that GSA had identified risks to its Recovery Act program and risk mitigation strategies and that GSA's approach to risk management was generally consistent with best practices we had developed. GSA focused on broad risks that could affect GSA's ability to address objectives for the agency as a whole. However, GSA relied on informal communication to identify project-level risks and had not taken steps to ensure completion of project-level risk planning documents. Such GSA reliance could result in some vulnerabilities going unidentified and increase the potential for risks to negatively affect GSA's program as projects move from preliminary stages to construction. Therefore, we recommended that GSA require Recovery Act project management staff to complete project-level risk planning documents. On January 14, 2011, GSA issued a directive to their regional project teams reinforcing that the Comprehensive Project Plans (CPP), which included the requirement for project-level risk management plans, must be completed for all projects over a specific dollar threshold. In addition, GSA's Public Buildings Service Office of Design and Construction Zone Teams were assigned responsibility for the monitoring and quarterly review of the CPPs. As a result, GSA has taken steps to ensure that management staff are identifying, planning, and addressing project-level risks.

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Topics

Data collectionEnergy conservationEnergy consumptionEnergy managementFederal facilitiesFederal property managementGreen technologyInformation disclosurePerformance measuresProgram evaluationRequirements definitionRisk assessmentRisk factorsRisk managementStrategic planningWater conservationInvestmentsRenewable energy sourcesEnergy planningProgram goals or objectivesTransparency