Stewardship of Federal Facilities A Proactive Strategy for Managing the Nation's Public Assets (1998) / Chapter Skim
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4 Strategic Framework
4 Strategic Framework
Pages 59-82
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From page 59... ...
Once facilities have been acquired, the long-term costs of maintaining them become the owner's responsibility. Even though federal facilities represent investments of capital, they are generally not treated as capital investments from a management and accounting standpoint, as they would be in the private sector.
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From page 60... ...
To address these findings the committee attempted to develop a methodology and rationale that federal facilities program managers could use to systematically formulate and justify facility maintenance and repair budgets. However, the current state of practice, the lack of data, in general, and the lack of research results, in particular, precluded the development of a methodology per se.
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From page 61... ...
STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK GOAL Protect and Enhance the Functionality and Quality of the Federal Facilities Portfolio 61 FIGURE 4-1 Strategic framework for the maintenance and repair of federal facilities.
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From page 62... ...
. At the agency field level, facilities program managers develop budget requests for maintenance and repair funding, help determine which projects will be completed based on available funding, spend the funds allocated to them, and implement condition assessment programs.
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From page 63... ...
An effective agency director will support a substantive role for facilities program managers in the agency's strategic planning process, in the development of budget requests for facilities maintenance and repairs, and in finding innovative, cost-effective ways to implement maintenance and repair activities. Facilities program managers should place their leadership in a context of innovation and stewardship.
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From page 64... ...
Strategy: Empower Facilities Program Managers and Remove Institutional Barriers In today' s environment, federal facilities program managers are faced with extending the useful life of aging facilities; altering or retrofitting facilities to consolidate space or accommodate new functions and technologies; meeting evolving standards for safety, environmental quality, and accessibility; maintaining or disposing of excess facilities; and finding innovative ways and technologies to maximize limited resources. In order to meet these challenges, they must be provided with adequate resources, appropriate authority, training, "tools," and incentives.
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From page 65... ...
Given the pressures on agency senior managers and executives to focus on short-term operations instead of long-term issues of stewardship, however, a government-wide policy allowing agencies to retain funds from real estate sales in all circumstances could lead to unintended consequences. Agencies trying to raise funds for operating programs could be tempted to hold "fire" sales of properties that may be needed to meet future mission requirements.
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From page 66... ...
The template could be used as a "tool" by facilities program managers to formulate and justify maintenance and repair budget requests in the context of a facilities management program and to track expenditures. Senior managers, oversight agencies, and decision makers could use the information in the template to gain a better understanding of an agency' s overall facilities-related activities and to evaluate the potential impact of their decisions.
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From page 67... ...
Demolition Activities Annual operating budget No Annual operating budget Various funding sources, including no year, projectbased allocations such as revolving funds, carryover of unobligated funds, funding resulting from cost savings or cost avoidance strategies Various sources of funding No Project-based allocations separate from operations and maintenance budget. Should include a life-cycle cost analysis prior to funding Various sources of funding FIGURE 4-2 Illustrative template to reflect the total costs of facilities ownership.
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From page 68... ...
The source of facilitiesrelated funding is less significant than the total amount of funding requested, allocated, and obligated for an entire facilities management program. Six significant activities are included: routine maintenance, repairs, and replacements; facilities-related operations, which includes activities such as snow removal and custodial work; alterations and capital improvements, which includes major capital expenses that recur on a 5, 10 or 20 year basis, and minor alterations; legislatively mandated activities such as asbestos removal; new construction and total renovation projects; and demolition.
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From page 69... ...
The committee recommends that these activities be accounted for separately to provide facilities program managers and public officials with a better understanding of the total costs of unfunded legislative mandates and their impact on operations and maintenance budgets. New Construction or Total Renovation Activities New construction or total renovation activities above an established dollar threshold (which varies by agency)
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From page 70... ...
Demolition Activities Demolition projects are usually funded from the annual operations and maintenance appropriation, although they can be funded as separate, "earmarked" authorizations. Demolition is an important component of a facilities management program and the total costs of ownership.
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From page 71... ...
Because performance measures are not yet ingrained into agency processes, an opportunity exists to develop facilities managementrelated performance measures that can be used throughout the government. Consistent measures would allow for comparisons within and across agencies of the effectiveness of facilities management programs, including maintenance activities.
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From page 72... ...
In both cases, the stakeholders, i.e., the agency directors, facilities program managers, building operators, building occupants, and other customers of the facility, must judge whether the maintenance and repair program contributes to mission achievement for the agency. Performance measures for facilities maintenance and repair can be developed from the principles recommended in Measuring and Improving Infrastructure Performance.
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From page 73... ...
. identifying the entities responsible for facility stewardship at all levels of government, outlining their responsibilities, defining reporting requirements, and setting standards for accountability providing guidelines for developing government-wide performance measures for evaluating the effectiveness of facilities management and maintenance programs · establishing a process to identify best practices for facilities maintenance and repair developing a standardized, annotated chart of accounts for agencies to use in developing maintenance and repair budget requests and for tracking allocations and expenditures (A standardized chart of accounts, which could be based on the template described above, would facilitate interagency exchanges of information, the roll-up of data into broad classes for comparative analyses, and benchmarking for facilities management and maintenance and repair, inside and outside the federal government.
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From page 74... ...
help federal managers improve service delivery by requiring that they plan for meeting program objectives and by providing them with information about program results and service quality (5) improve congressional decision making by providing more objective information on achieving statutory objectives and on the relative effectiveness and efficiency of federal programs and spending (6)
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From page 75... ...
Once an agency has determined which facilities are mission-critical, it can prioritize its needs for maintenance and repair and direct available funding to the facilities that are most closely linked to agency mission. Linking facilities to mission will enable agencies to link maintenance and repair budget requests and allocations to the long-term strategic planning of federal agencies and the government as a whole.
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From page 76... ...
Because of the long time required to collect and analyze these data, their value for ongoing facilities management or developing maintenance and repair budget requests is limited. The more detailed the inspection, the higher the cost.
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From page 77... ...
By linking condition assessments to mission-critical facilities, focusing on life, safety, and health standards, as well as critical building system components, they can be integrated into strategic planning and budgeting processes. In summary, the purpose of restructuring and reprioritizing condition assessment programs is threefold: to make better use of available resources; to focus on deficiencies that can shorten a facility's service life, effect implementation of the mission, or pose significant risks to occupants' health or safety; and to collect meaningful, timely information that can be used in the budget process.
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From page 78... ...
Agencies should consider using or adapting not only the facilities they own, but also excess or underutilized facilities owned by other agencies. Existing facilities embody already allocated resources, and maximizing their use can be cost effective and can help manage the size of the federal facilities portfolio.
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From page 79... ...
The purpose of an extensive life-cycle cost analysis is to provide agency senior managers and Congress with the information they need to make informed decisions about the total costs of ownership before appropriating funds for new facilities. Accountability for the stewardship of facilities requires acknowledging the total costs of ownership and making a commitment to provide the funding necessary to maintain buildings over their entire life cycles.
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From page 80... ...
The demolition of facilities that are functionally obsolete, do not support an agency's mission, are not historically significant, and are not suitable for transfer or adaptive reuse should also be part of the federal facilities portfolio management strategy. Up-front funding, over and above current operations and maintenance funding levels, should be considered for the demolition of facilities.
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From page 81... ...
Strategy: Support Research on Maintenance and Repair-Related Issues Facilities program managers could determine how maintenance and repair funds could be optimized and operate safer, healthy, and more productive facilities if they had access to information about cost-avoidance strategies, the deterioration of building components, and the nonquantitative effects of maintenance on agency mission and on the people who work in or rely on federal facilities. Research on cost-avoidance strategies and the deterioration of building components would help facilities program managers and others to plan and implement costeffective facilities management programs and strategies, develop maintenance and repair budget requests, and determine the optimum time to repair or replace building components or systems to maximize service life and avoid business disruptions.
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From page 82... ...
1995. Measuring and Improving Infrastructure Performance.
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