Stewardship of Federal Facilities A Proactive Strategy for Managing the Nation's Public Assets (1998) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 10-23
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. Government facilities are used to defend the national interest; conduct foreign policy; house historic, cultural, and educational artifacts; pursue research; and provide services to the American public.
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11 an c)
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The service life, or period of time over which a building, component, or subsystem actually provides adequate performance, depends on many factors. The quality of a building's design, the durability of construction materials and component systems, the incorporated technology, the location and climate, the use and intensity of use, and damage caused by heavy storms, natural disasters, or human error all influence how well and how quickly a building ages and the amount of maintenance and repair a building requires over its life cycle.
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Failure to recognize these costs and provide adequate maintenance and repair results in a shorter service life, more rapid deterioration, and higher operating costs over the life cycle of a building. FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE DETERIORATING CONDITION OF FEDERAL FACILITIES Despite the historic, cultural, and architectural importance of, and economic investment in, federal facilities, evidence is mounting that the physical condition, functionality, and quality of the federal facilities portfolio is deteriorating.
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Thus, the federal budget process is not structured to consider the total costs of facilities ownership. Inadequate Funding for Maintenance and Repair Inadequate funding for the maintenance and repair of public buildings at all levels of government and academia is a long-standing and well documented problem.
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However, Committing to the Cost of Ownership: Maintenance and Repair of Public Buildings did recommend that, "An appropriate budget allocation for routine M&R [maintenance and repair] for a substantial inventory of facilities will typically be in the range of 2 to 4 percent of the aggregate current replacement value of those facilities" (NRC, 1990~.
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Historically, public officials have not often found the arguments for maintenance and repair funding compelling and have called into question the methodologies used to define building deficiencies and to calculate the costs involved in repairing theme One reason for this skepticism is that although "the amount of deferred maintenance is important in itself, without also including 3Fiscal year 1998 is the first year in which federal agencies are required to report periodically on deferred maintenance by disclosing deferred maintenance in agency financial statements. Previously, some but not all federal agencies kept inventories of building deficiencies and the funding required to eliminate them; others provided maintenance needs estimates for budgetary purposes and ad hoc reports.
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Aging facilities require more, not less, maintenance and repair to keep them operating effectively. Lack of Information to Justify Maintenance and Repair Budgets In the federal budget and operations environment, facilities maintenance and repair is often deemed to be a low priority issue because facilities program managers do not have the information they need to present their case for funding to senior managers and public officials.
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CONSEQUENCES AND COSTS OF INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE Continuously deferring adequate maintenance and repair can result in major damage to facilities, disruptions in service and business, and costly and serious health and safety consequences, as the following examples illustrate: On May 26, 1989, at NASA's Lewis Research Center, a high pressure steam shutoff valve ruptured in the basement of the Library Services Building. The valve's failure was partially attributed to badly deteriorated piping supports in a steam line tunnel.
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installations are in a 'breakdown maintenance mode,' resulting in increases in emergency repairs and equipment breakdowns." At one installation, "emergency work orders increased from less than 300 for fiscal year 1992 to over 20,000 for fiscal year 1996," and "over 45 waterlines broke in fiscal year 1996." Navy headquarters officials reported that "funding levels allow only preventive maintenance on mission-critical systems, such as electrical and water pump distribution systems. The preventive maintenance is limited to inexpensive repairs that take as little as 15 minutes" (GAO, 1997~.
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. maintaining a relatively stable number of facilities · extending the useful life of aging facilities meeting evolving requirements for safety, environmental quality, and accessibility · altering or retrofitting facilities to consolidate space or accommodate new functions or technologies · overcoming institutional barriers to becoming more businesslike in their operations · finding new ways to optimize available resources Against this background, the sponsoring agencies of the Federal Facilities Council4 determined that it would be appropriate to revisit the issue of budgeting techniques and activities for facility maintenance and repair and requested that a follow-up study to the 1990 report be done.
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For information on the physical condition of federal facilities, maintenance and repair budgeting, condition assessment practices, deferred maintenance, and related topics, the committee relied heavily on GAO reports, briefings by federal agency program managers, and personal experience. The committee began task 1 with the idea that it could develop a methodology for the systematic formulation of maintenance and repair budgets.
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Chapter 2 focuses on a wide range of issues related to the management and maintenance of federal facilities, including the federal budget process, the federal facilities portfolio, and the availability of maintenance and repair related data. Chapter 3 describes condition assessment practices, technologies, and issues.
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1995. Indoor Air Quality Investigation, Nassif Building in Washington, D.C., Salt Lake City Technical Center Report.
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