In our June 1998 testimony, we said that, because of the unreliability of the GSA’s building security upgrade tracking system, neither GSA nor we could determine whether all GSA buildings had been evaluated for security needs. Further, we said that we could not make a reliable determination of the status of the building security upgrade program because of errors in GSA’s building security upgrade tracking system. In addition, we reported that we could not reliably determine the actual costs or obligations incurred by GSA for security upgrades because GSA’s accounting system also contained significant errors. We found in our most recent work that GSA has acted to ensure that its buildings have been assessed for security needs and to correct the data in its upgrade tracking system. It appears that, as a result of GSA’s efforts, at least 98 percent of GSA’s high-risk buildings and at least 96 percent of its lower-risk buildings have been evaluated for security needs and that the accuracy of GSA’s security upgrade tracking system has improved. However, GSA recognizes that its accounting system still contains errors, some of which pertain to funds reported by GSA’s OIG as inappropriately expended. In May 1998, GSA’s Federal Protective Service (FPS) directed its staff in GSA’s 11 regions to assess each GSA-controlled building to ensure that security evaluations had been completed and verify that the security upgrades in place were accurately reflected in GSA’s building security upgrade tracking and accounting systems. The regions were further directed to submit to FPS headquarters certifications that all buildings in their respective regions had been assessed and that security upgrade data in the tracking and accounting systems had been reviewed, verified, and where needed, corrected. The directive stated that these actions were to be completed for all high-risk (level IV) buildings by October 1, 1998, and for all lower-risk (level I through III) buildings by April 1, 1999. According to GSA, these assessments were also to mark the restart of the periodic building security inspections that GSA had curtailed after the bombing incident in 1995. Subsequently, each FPS regional director provided FPS headquarters certifications that the directive had been met, and that all buildings in each region had been assessed and the appropriate corrections made to the tracking and accounting systems, with a few exceptions—relating primarily to the errors in the accounting system--noted. According to FPS officials, to do these reassessments, regional FPS physical security specialists met with each building’s GSA and agency tenant representatives to inspect and evaluate the security needs of the building. A GSA headquarters official told us that at least 97 percent of GSA’s buildings were assessed as a result of this initiative. We randomly sampled 300 buildings (150 level IV and 150 level I through III buildings) from GSA’s nationwide building inventory, and contacted each building’s physical security specialist, and requested the assessment report for each building. Based on our analysis of the information and documentation provided to us on our sampled buildings, it appears that 98 to 100 percent of GSA’s high-risk buildings and 96 to 100 percent of its lower-risk buildings have now been assessed for security needs. In our June 1998 testimony, we reported that we had reviewed the security upgrade records for 53 buildings, inspected the security upgrades in place at 43 of these buildings, and compared the upgrades in place in the buildings with the data shown in GSA’s upgrade tracking system. We reported that GSA’s building security upgrade tracking system contained errors in 24, or 45 percent, of the buildings reviewed. In addition, we cited a similar study by GSA’s OIG that found that in 65, or 54 percent, of the buildings it reviewed, the status of the security upgrades in the buildings was not accurately reflected in the building security upgrade tracking system. We recently visited 31 of the buildings reviewed either by the OIG or us and found that most of the inaccuracies in the tracking system previously identified had been corrected. Specifically, in our earlier review, we found that 163 security upgrades in these 31 buildings were inaccurately recorded in the tracking system. During our most recent visits to these buildings, we found that corrections had been made in the tracking system for 152 of the upgrades. For example, we found earlier that a privately- owned building in which GSA leased space would not allow GSA to install certain security upgrades because building management believed that the upgrades would inconvenience private tenants. However, the upgrades were shown as completed in the tracking system. In our most recent review, we found that the upgrades had been cancelled out of the upgrade tracking system. In an another example, the OIG had found six inoperable closed circuit television cameras in one building, while the upgrade tracking system showed that these cameras were a completed security upgrade. Our recent visit to this building revealed that all six of the cameras were installed and operational. On the other hand, we found that the tracking system continued to contain some errors. We found errors relating to 11 upgrades in 10 of the 31 buildings we visited. Examples of these errors include the following: For one building, 15 light poles for the building parking lot were shown as a completed upgrade in the tracking system; in fact, we found that GSA had installed two mercury vapor lights in the building’s parking lot instead of the 15 light poles In another building, the tracking system showed that two magnetometers and two x-ray machines were completed upgrades; we found that only one magnetometer and one x-ray machine were operating in the building In yet another building, the upgrade tracking system showed that an x-ray machine was a completed upgrade; we found that the x-ray machine was in storage inside the building. New upgrade tracking system: GSA officials also told us that a new system is being developed that will replace the existing building security upgrade tracking system by early next year. The current building security upgrade tracking system, developed to track all security upgrades by building, became operational in early 1996. However, GSA officials have described the tracking system as inflexible and ineffective. According to GSA, the new upgrade tracking system is designed to be easier to use and a more reliable source for building security upgrade status. The new system was developed with the help of GSA’s Regional Physical Security Specialists who, as part of a team, provided input on the needs and requirements of such a system. GSA officials anticipate that any needed changes to data in the new tracking system will be easier to make and thus believe the new system will more accurately reflect the status of building security upgrades. According to GSA, the new tracking system also is to interface with GSA’s System for Tracking and Administering Real Property (STAR), a database of building and tenant information used by GSA for, among other things, rent calculations. According to GSA, its Southwest region in Ft. Worth, TX, is to begin piloting the new system in November 1999, prior to its planned implementation across all regions. We reported in June 1998 that we couldn’t reliably determine the actual costs or obligations incurred by GSA for security upgrades because GSA’s accounting system, like its tracking system, contained significant errors. GSA attributed the inaccuracies in its accounting system to errors GSA personnel made when they recorded obligations for upgrade transactions in the accounting system. Our June 1998 testimony cited several examples of these errors, including one in which about $1 million in obligations related to GSA programs other than building security had been erroneously recorded in the accounting system as building security program obligations, and another in which about $9.7 million in estimated costs for building security upgrades shown in the tracking system had no corresponding obligations recorded in the accounting system. According to GSA officials and documentation they provided to us, GSA’s efforts to correct security upgrade cost data in its accounting system have not been completely successful. GSA officials told us that, when the building security upgrade program first began, there was uncertainty concerning which funding code was to be used for security upgrade capital costs. GSA intended that obligations for all upgrades should come from specially coded funds setaside specifically for the building security program. However, GSA regional officials were not all aware of the special funding code until after a number of upgrades had been entered into the system under another code. In addition, GSA officials explained that the cost figures in the security upgrade tracking system were only estimates, while the cost figures in the accounting system represented actual costs, which led to numerous discrepancies between the two systems. Further, they said that correcting data in the accounting system was more difficult than correcting the data in the upgrade tracking system because the accounting system would not allow some changes to be made, particularly changes to data that had been in the accounting system for 2 years or more. As a result, the costs of security upgrades in the accounting system still do not correspond to those recorded in the tracking system, and the accounting system still contains security upgrade costs charged to the wrong funding code. were security related, and they had not attempted to change how the costs of these items were recorded in the accounting system; for other items, changes to the programs that these items were charged to in the accounting system were attempted, but the system would not allow the changes to be made. Examples of these reported inappropriate uses of security program funds by GSA include the following: 1. GSA regional officials told us that some construction work necessary to complete approved security measures was paid for with building security funds. These officials considered the cost of the work a valid building security program cost and charged it to the building security program in the accounting system, even though this cost was not an approved security-related cost recorded in the tracking system. 2. According to a regional GSA official, GSA purchased security communications equipment that was not an approved security upgrade recorded in the upgrade tracking system. The GSA official told us that they have since added the communication equipment to the upgrade tracking system. 3.