Start Planning for Better Processes

If there has ever been a time for redirection of funds into better real property asset data collection and validation, now is the time. Legislators and media watchdogs alike are beginning to demand better processes and reporting in federal real property asset management. Rightly or wrongly, they are tying surplus real property inventory to everything from rising tax rates to the collapse of the Minneapolis freeway bridge.

It’s true that the issue of real property asset management is slowly moving to the forefront among some legislators – on both sides of Congress. In July, Representative John Duncan (R-TN) introduced HR-3049, essentially mirroring the five-year pilot expedited disposal program presented only one month earlier to the Senate as S.1667. The proposed House legislation is consistent with Duncan’s general attitude toward government ownership of real property. Duncan has long held that the government’s control of land assets stifles private development. (For more information, see the article “House Offers Counterpart to Senate Disposal Legislation,” in this issue.)

Elsewhere, surplus real property is being blamed for the failing condition of federal and state infrastructure. Steve Littau, blogging for The Liberty Papers, cited a commentary by Citizens Against Government Waste that identified Chicago’s former Main Post Office as a poster child for poor asset management. Littau’s issue was that claims of insufficient funds to repair the federal infrastructure were false, and that dollars spent to maintain unneeded property should be redirected to the nation’s ailing roads and bridges. (See “Media Watchdogs Monitor Real Property.”)

Of course it’s easy to blame poor asset management practices when a high-profile tragedy like the one in Minneapolis takes place. The Monday morning quarterback always knows what the best decision would have been the night before.

Still, it is true that progress in real property data collection and validation is still only in its infancy. Several more rounds of collection must go into the Federal Real Property Profile before we can begin to feel confident about the condition, utilization and cost to operate America’s federal real property inventory.

That’s why it remains so important for federal Agencies to set aside budget to improve processes and procedures for reporting on assets – as opposed to software for reporting. Until an Agency has complete confidence in the means by which it gathers, maintains and shares data, investment in new software applications may be a bit premature. VISTA’s Principal Consultant David Baker explains why in the article “Don’t Stovepipe Bad Processes". The purpose of software, David explains, is to maximize the benefit of best practices across an organization. Until your processes pass muster, software can only emulate and repeat bad practices – the kind that got many of us the unwelcome media and legislative scrutiny we’re experiencing today.

How confident are you in the practices and procedures your organization uses in asset management? Maybe now is the time to commit the appropriate resources.


David Baxa
President and CEO
VISTA