Federal government's landlord agency loses track of one of its own offices

The federal government’s chief landlord agency can’t even keep track of its own office space, an inspector general said this week in a devastating study of the General Services Administration’s operations.

In one embarrassing instance, GSA gave up office space in a federal building in Washington in early 2023, but 18 months later the agency was still convinced it was renting the space, even insisting on the point to auditors.

When the auditors showed up to look at the space, they found part of it empty and the rest occupied by the Interior Department, not GSA.

That’s emblematic of the agency’s broader difficulties in managing its own space, the inspector general said, dinging GSA for leaving offices vacant.

A major part of the problem is telework.

More than half of the agency’s 12,000 employees were approved for remote work in 2023 — an 850% increase over the rate from 2020, the audit said.

But GSA hasn’t adjusted its footprint to account for the people who no longer come to work every day.

“GSA is not effectively managing its internal space to reflect occupancy changes,” the audit concluded.

GSA officials agreed with the stern findings and promised changes.

“Upon issuance of the final audit report, we will establish a corrective action plan outlining the specific actions and estimated completion dates in support of the implementation,” Bob Stafford, GSA chief administrative officer, said in the agency’s official reply.

GSA manages federal properties for the rest of the government, so its inability to handle its own portfolio is striking.

The audit said GSA doesn’t even have the data to monitor its occupancy, which makes it difficult to take steps to slim down.

GSA offices use a combination of checking swipes on access cards, conducting daily check-ins, monitoring the agency’s workspace reservation system and occupation sensors. But none of those captures 100% of use.

GSA has a target of 135 square feet of office space per employee. But it doesn’t have a plan for how to meet that target.

Two of GSA’s regions had three times the target space, and only the National Capital Region — the agency’s largest — came in below the target, with 127 square feet of space for each assigned employee.

GSA also doesn’t follow its own rules for closing down space that’s no longer needed, the audit concluded.

The inspector general noted some successes.

GSA in 2023 decided to cut its space in Philadelphia, saving $1.9 million over the term of its lease. It also turned some space in New York City over to the IRS, saving GSA more than $40 million over the rest of the lease.

In the case of the phantom office, the inspector general’s report included photos of the space GSA still had listed but that it had given up more than a year earlier.

Investigators said it was their prod that finally got GSA to change its systems and acknowledge the space was gone.

While GSA owns the space and didn’t have to pay rent, the audit said it did record more than $500,000 in “imputed” rent payments in its system.

The inspector general bluntly nudged the GSA.

“GSA should properly manage its [occupancy agreements] and follow its procedures for the release of space it no longer occupies,” the audit concluded.