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INTRODUCTION 11 include a central utility plant that is staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. Staff at these facilities ordinarily perform maintenance as a routine part of operations. Agencies must decide if any portion of the operations funding will be included in the maintenance and repair budget. These amounts are not trivial when multiplied over hundreds or even thousands of facilities. The Federal Facilities Council (1996) report Budgeting for Facilities Maintenance and Repair Activities and the NRC (1998) report, Stewardship of Federal Facilities: A Proactive Strategy for Managing the Nation's Public Assets both address items that are appropriately included in maintenance and repair budgets and those that are related to operations, alterations, and capital improvements. OTHER STANDARDS IN EFFECT Some agencies need to meet other standards that may be in conflict with or raise other issues for complying with FASAB Standard Number 6, as amended, for deferred maintenance reporting for facilities. Agencies that operate hospitals, medical centers, or other health care organizations must be accredited by the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) or the Health Care Finance Administration as a requirement to receive federal payments or by federal policy as is the case for federal health care providers. Both organizations require rigorous maintenance programs and accomplish onsite inspection as well as review of maintenance records. Agencies subject to these standards include the Department of Veterans Affairs, NIH, and several defense organizations. The JCAHO standards lead health care organizations to include building systems in a larger category of utility systems and to determine their criticality to the organization's mission. The organization inventories each utility system's components, analyzes each components' maintenance needs, and develops a maintenance program including scheduling, documentation, and review of their maintenance. Utility systems considered critical to a health care organization's mission must be maintained and must operate reliably to meet accreditation standards. The power marketing administrations (PMAs) of the Department of Energy (i.e., Bonneville PMA, Southwestern PMA, Western PMA, and Southeastern PMA) are regulated to industry standards by regional utility commissions. The condition of the physical assets must meet specific criteria related to safety and reliability of operations. In meeting these standards the PMAs are not permitted to defer any maintenance. Although all government agencies may not have to submit to the rigor of specific standards developed by accrediting agencies, mission requirements involving continuous 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year use, such as that found in operations centers, emergency response facilities, and air traffic control centers, may require a more rigorous standard, set by statute or by the responsible agency, that will not permit the facility to operate unless operations and maintenance are fully funded. To meet accreditation or other standards, federal agencies may find it necessary to invest a significant portion of maintenance and repair budgets into specific types of facilities and to defer needed maintenance and repair at other facilities not subject to such standards. When considering any modifications to the reporting requirements of FASAB
