Deferred Maintenance Reporting for Federal Facilities: Meeting the Requirements of Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board Standard Number 6, as Amended (2001)

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DEFINITIONAL ISSUES AND POTENTIAL REVISIONS 22 POTENTIAL REVISIONS FASAB Standard Number 6, as amended, is intended to address both maintenance and repair programs for facilities and other classes of assets, with significantly different characteristics, uses, and life cycles. As noted above, the committee has suggested potential revisions for consideration that would more closely reflect current federal practices as they relate to facilities. They would also provide facilities managers with the flexibility necessary to apply a government-wide standard to agencies having a wide variety of missions, different accounting systems, and different maintenance and repair practices. Suggested revisions to the definitions that would address the noted deficiencies could read as follows: Maintenance and repairs. Maintenance and repairs are activities directed toward keeping fixed assets in a condition to effectively support the mission. Activities include preventive maintenance, repairs, replacement of parts and structural components, and other activities needed to preserve the asset so that it continues to support the mission. Maintenance and repairs exclude activities aimed at expanding the capacity of an asset or otherwise upgrading it to serve needs different from or significantly greater than its current use. 1 Deferred maintenance and repairs. Maintenance and repairs that were not performed when they should have been or were scheduled to be and which, therefore, were put off or delayed for a future period. REFERENCES FASAB (Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board). 1996. Accounting for Property, Plant, and Equipment. Statement of Recommended Accounting Standards, Number 6. Online: http://www.financenet.gov/financenet/fed/fasab/concepts.htm. FFC (Federal Facilities Council). 1996. Budgeting for Facilities Maintenance and Repair Activities. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. NRC (National Research Council). 1991. Pay Now or Pay Later: Controlling Cost of Ownership from Design Throughout the Service Life of Public Buildings. Building Research Board. Washington, D.C. : National Academy Press. NRC. 1998. Stewardship of Federal Facilities. A Proactive Strategy for Managing the Nation's Public Assets. Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. 1 One reviewer of this report took issue with the change to “effectively support the mission.” The concern was that it would be difficult to compute maintenance and repair requirements without reference to the life of a building and its components. A second reviewer suggested that the last sentence read “maintenance and repairs exclude activities aimed at materially changing capability, capacity, or extending its useful life.”