Strengthening
the management of the Federal Government’s assets has been an important
objective of the Administration. For example, on February 4, 2004, the
President signed into law Executive Order 13327, “Federal Real Property
Asset Management.” This executive order – the first order
fully devoted to real property management in nearly 20 years – has
served as a much-needed boost toward improving the management of Federal
assets on a government-wide level.
Pursuant to the executive order, all major Federal agencies are now working
to complete the following steps:
Establish
the position of a Senior Real Property Officer, who will be held accountable
for the effective management of agency real properties;
Develop and
implement asset management plans; and
Determine
what it owns, what it needs, and how and what it costs to manage its
real properties.
Established by the
executive order, an interagency Federal Real Property Council is developing
government-wide guidance and serving as a clearinghouse for best practices.
Comprised in part by the agency Senior Real Property Officers, the Council
has held regular meetings since March, and it is specifically working through
its committee structure to develop a standard asset management plan template,
government-wide performance measures, and a standard method of reporting
its property inventory.
In conjunction with
the executive order, a new Federal Real Property Asset Management initiative
has been added to the President’s Management Agenda (PMA). This initiative
will now hold the largest Federal landholding agencies accountable and track
their status and progress of real property management improvement efforts
on the quarterly PMA scorecard.
Through the hard
work of the Senior Real Property Officers and the Federal Real Property
the Council, as well as the ongoing PMA scorecard process, the government
is addressing real property asset management on a government-wide level.
Over the next several years, it is the goal of this Administration for all
major agencies to develop and implement effective asset management plans
and apply appropriate performance measures to its properties. Additionally,
the work of the agencies and the Council should ultimately lead to the development
of a comprehensive and descriptive database of all Federal real properties.
Once complete, this database, along with appropriately identified performance
measures, will assist agency management in making informed decisions about
what properties are needed, being utilized effectively, or qualify for disposal.
Section one of Executive
Order 13327 states: “[I]t is the policy of the United States to promote
the efficient and economical use of America's real property assets and to
assure management accountability for implementing Federal real property
management reforms.” Thus, at a minimum, the American taxpayers deserve
to know that the Federal Government is managing its assets in an efficient
and cost-effective manner. Through the work of the agencies and the Federal
Real Property Council, and the implementation of the new Real Property PMA
initiative, the Administration will continue its efforts to improve real
property asset management.
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