The Top Six Problem Areas of Federal Real Property Data

By this summer, the General Services Administration will present the next Federal Real Property Profile (FRPP). The current reported data, according to the 2006 report, is impressive: Three billion square feet or space, over one million assets and more than1.3 trillion dollars in replacement value - excluding land.

And yet one important question remains unanswered, if you examine the practices, systems and reported data of individual agencies: Does it all add up to an accurate report?

The following article looks at some important, lingering questions any Federal executive must consider - especially real property professionals - to ensure that they present the most accurate accounting possible of their real property assets.

1. How accurate is your FRPP real property inventory data?

The 2006 Federal Real Property Profile (FRPP) reported that Federal agencies occupy approximately three billion square feet of real property. That's a pretty big number. It would be easy to get lost in all that space. But keep in mind that the FRPP report is only as accurate as the data you reported.

How accurate is your data? Would your data stand up to an outside audit by GAO or OMB?

2. How much faith do you have in the reporting processes, systems, and people?

Executive Order 13327 required Federal agencies to document their real property processes and plans for improvement in the form of an Asset Management Plan (AMP).

In their AMPs, many agencies claimed (among other things) that their real property reporting systems were capable of generating accurate reports - or they were examining improvements or whole new systems. Some claimed that they had solid processes in place for getting the data from the field to the real property collection and reporting tools. Do you?

3. Do you have the right tools and people to accurately report your real property data?

Government auditors maintain that the biggest problem standing in the way of clean agency financial audits is a lack of the internal controls required under OMB Circular A-123. That same level of internal control must apply to each agency's primary asset - namely, its real property. Below the HQ level, there are many different real property reporting processes and systems scattered throughout the Federal portfolio. Are your systems transparent from the CFO down to the constructed asset level - and back up?

4. Do you have meaningful performance measurements?

Your performance measurements - specifically condition, utilization, and cost - are likely tied to your OMB scorecard for the real property initiative of the President's Management Agenda. At some point in a near quarter, OMB will expect you to show measurable improvements in your calculated performance measurements. If you fail to meet your targets, your scorecard results will suffer.

What are the consequences of this? If you don't have faith in your reported data, you probably don't have faith in your reported performance measurements.

5. Do you trust the data to make critical (or any) real property decisions?

OMB expects your real property decisions, especially those involving capital dollars, to be at least in part based on performance measurements. Can your agency make such decisions now? If not now, when?

6. What impact does a wrong real property decision have on your budget? Your mission? Your people?

In the continuing struggle for limited budget dollars, making the wrong real property decision costs your agency in more than just financial terms. It also costs you trust with OMB and Congress. Can your mission be fulfilled if budget decrements reduce your ability to properly fund your real property needs? Can you sustain your agency's workforce, which is already stressed by pending retirements and hiring restraints, without safe, appropriate real property facilities?

The government is operating under the third Continuing Resolution on an operating budget. With this downward budgetary pressure, your organization will be more accountable than ever before to create the internal controls and repeatable, verifiable processes required to develop and maintain high quality real property data. If you can appropriately answer these six questions, you're well ahead of the game.

For a glimpse into what leading Departments and agencies are doing to ensure compliance with real property asset management goals, see the article "Real Property Best Practices: Observations from the Front Lines".