**GAO-02-342**                      Published: Apr 16, 2002. Publicly Released: Apr 18, 2002.                  

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## Highlights

For 50 years, the General Services Administration (GSA) has maintained the federal government's real property assets, including military installations, office buildings, laboratories, courthouses, postal facilities, and embassies. Separately, the Department of the Treasury produces annual financial information on these assets. GSA's worldwide inventory is the only central source of detailed information on on the government's real property inventory, such as addresses, square footage, acquisition dates, and property type. GAO found that GSA's inventory contains unreliable data. The inventory lacks key data for budgeting and strategic management, such as space utilization, facility condition, historical significance, security, and facility age. Poor communication between GSA and the reporting agencies, technical difficulties with agency data, and resource constraints contributed to the problems. GSA lacks the authority to require agencies to submit data and has been pursuing real property reform legislation. The agency has also begun to improve the effectiveness of the worldwide inventory as a decisionmaking tool. With OMB's concurrence, GSA suspended the reporting process for fiscal year 2001 and plans to develop an enhanced database with real-time capabilities to complement the yearly inventory reports.

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## Topics

Government Operations

Data integrityDecision makingFederal property managementInformation resources managementInventory controlReal propertyStrategic planningFederal real propertyDatabase management systemsFinancial statements