When a government agency relocates, the GSA invokes its monopoly to serve as the broker. After laying waste to price competition among landlords, the GSA then lards each additional step of the office relocation process. To avoid responsibility and accountability, GSA contracting officers engage outside consultants to advise them on the hiring of architects and contractors. In the private sector, these would be hired directly by the landlord, who has a selfish interest in keeping costs low and quality high. As distrust is a common thread running through government procedure the GSA then hires additional firms to audit the work being performed by the consultants, architects, and contractors that the GSA engaged.
Taxpayers also support an inspector general who performs yet another audit.
By not injecting competition into the process, Congress not only encourages this costly duplication, but further inflates the price of relocation. His wife is a member of the California Builders' Hall of Fame. Owen suggests empowering individual agencies to accomplish their own relocation with assistance from private-sector firms. Regulation is published four times a year by the Cato Institute. Editorial and business offices are located at 1000 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., 20001.