The General Services Administration is responsible for ensuring that all buildings it operates maintain a certain level of security countermeasures, most especially facilities that contain child care programs, ever since the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City killed 168 people and 15 children specifically in its child care center.
But a Jan. 30 audit released by the GSA Inspector General found that all 11 of the child care centers it tested had “significant” security vulnerabilities and did not meet minimum safety standards.
“GSA has the authority and discretion to upgrade GSA-controlled buildings containing child care centers to meet minimum security standards. [Public Buildings Service] officials acknowledged that nothing legally prohibits GSA from implementing security countermeasures,” the report said.
According to GSA official responses to the audit, part of the reason these security countermeasures haven’t been implemented is that doing so would drain the accounts the agency has available to repair and alter its buildings.
When the Department of Homeland Security performs facility security assessments for buildings with child care centers, those findings are presented to the Facility Security Committee, which is composed of representatives from the agencies using the building. That committee then determines whether countermeasures are implemented, and it has declined to do so due to a lack of funding.
GSA is authorized to make such improvements without FSC approval, but that decision would mean that funding for the changes must come from already cash-strapped accounts.
“GSA officials acknowledged that there are no legal prohibitions on GSA using the Federal Buildings Fund — a revolving fund used to finance the expenses of GSA’s real property management — to implement security countermeasures,” the report said.
“GSA officials also stated that large-scale implementation of these countermeasures without FSC approval would affect the long-term solvency of the FBF because PBS would not be able to pass the cost of these measures to the tenant agencies through rental rates.”
Draining the FBF is not the only option GSA has to ensure the security of facilities with childcare centers.
According to the report, the GSA administrator may allocate appropriated funding to make security improvements, so long as the amount does not exceed the prospectus threshold, which was set at just over $3 million for construction, alteration and lease projects and $1.5 million for alterations to already-leased buildings.
The administrator may also request additional appropriations through the FBF and transfer funds that have not been promised for a specific project to the repairs and alterations account with congressional approval.
“According to the PBS commissioner’s written comments to our draft report, ‘PBS has a Repair and Alterations backlog of nearly $7 billion, and since [fiscal year] 2011, Congress has underfunded GSA’s Repairs and Alterations accounts by approximately $3.5 billion,’” the report said.
The IG recommended that GSA ensure that it maintains child care centers in locations that meet minimum security standards, address the specific vulnerabilities at those centers, and conduct a comprehensive assessment to either identify security risks that can be addressed or move the centers to more secure locations.
GSA agreed with the recommendations.
Jessie Bur covers federal IT and management.
