Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: I am pleased to be here today to discuss the General Services Administration’s (GSA) progress in upgrading the security of federal buildings under its operation. As you know, following the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, the President directed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to assess the vulnerability of federal office buildings, particularly to acts of terrorism and other forms of violence. Under the direction of DOJ, an interagency working group comprising security professionals from nine federal departments and agencies issued, in June 1995, a report recommending specific minimum security standards for federal buildings. Subsequently, the President directed executive departments and agencies to upgrade the security of their facilities to the extent feasible based on the DOJ report’s recommendations. The President gave GSA this responsibility for the buildings it controls, and in July 1995, GSA initiated a multimillion-dollar security enhancement program for its 8,300 buildings. You requested that we evaluate the GSA building security upgrade program. Specifically, you asked that we determine (1) what criteria GSA used to assess security risks and prioritize security upgrades for its buildings, (2) the implementation and operational status of GSA’s security upgrade program and the costs GSA has incurred by both funding source and type of security upgrade (such as x-ray machines and security guards), and (3) whether any problems have hindered GSA’s implementation of the security upgrade program. timetables in the DOJ report because of GSA’s sense of urgency to upgrade security in its buildings, reduced staffing due to downsizing, data reliability problems, and uncertain funding sources have hindered GSA’s upgrade program implementation. Because of data reliability problems, neither GSA nor we can specify the exact status or cost of the building security upgrade program, and because GSA has not established program outcome measures, neither GSA nor we know the extent to which completed upgrades have resulted in greater security or reduced vulnerability for federal office buildings. Thus, GSA is not in a good position to manage its program to mitigate security threats. Before presenting specific information on our findings, I would like to provide some information on our scope and methodology. In responding to your request, we interviewed key GSA officials in Washington, D.C.; and in GSA Regional Offices in Atlanta, GA; Ft. Worth, TX; Denver, CO; and the National Capital Region of Washington, D.C.; and obtained and reviewed the DOJ report as well as documents from GSA relating to the planning, implementation, and operation of the security upgrade program. We held discussions and obtained data from representatives of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the GSA Office of Inspector General (OIG), and several federal agencies that have organizational units in GSA-owned and -leased buildings. We did not evaluate the appropriateness of the DOJ building security standards or the effectiveness of either GSA’s building security program or security programs administered by other agencies. We did our work from July 1997 to May 1998 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. We have included more details about our scope and methodology and additional details about our findings in appendixes I through IV. a given building and were to be assisted by a GSA regional physical security specialist in identifying and estimating the costs of needed security upgrades. GSA assigned initial risk level designations to its buildings based on information available at the time, pending more definitive determinations by the BSCs. Generally, GSA prioritized its buildings for receiving security upgrades based on risk level, with the higher risk buildings receiving security assessments and needed upgrades first. (For further details, see app. II.) Although GSA has completed many building security assessments, upgrade cost estimates, and upgrades, we weren’t able to reliably determine the total numbers of upgrades completed nationally because GSA’s upgrade tracking system contained incomplete and erroneous data. According to GSA, tracking system data were unreliable because its regional staff did not always appropriately or accurately record upgrade transactions in the tracking system. The Federal Protective Service (FPS)—the physical security and law enforcement arm of GSA’s Public Buildings Service—developed a computerized database system to track the status of all building security committee-requested upgrades. The system, which became fully operational in early 1996, was designed to track by region, and by building, upgrades requested, approved, and completed, as well as upgrade cost estimates. The tracking system was also intended to serve in part as a forerunner to a larger government-wide database of security upgrades in all federal buildings, as required by Executive Order 12977, dated October 19, 1995. The order created the Interagency Security Committee, which was to be chaired by GSA’s administrator or his designee, comprising representatives from 17 federal agencies and specific individuals. The Committee was established to enhance the quality and effectiveness of security in buildings and facilities occupied by federal employees. to GSA buildings around the country included (1) concrete bollards constructed around building perimeters, (2) security cameras installed and in use both inside and outside of buildings, and (3) metal detectors and x-ray machines installed at building entrances and operated by GSA or contract security personnel. However, based on our work and that of the OIG, we do not believe that a reliable determination of the building security upgrade program’s status can be made because of errors in the upgrade tracking system. GSA’s upgrade tracking system contained errors related to the number of upgrades approved and the number completed in 24, or 45 percent, of the buildings we reviewed and in 65, or 54 percent, of the buildings reviewed by the OIG. For example, (1) some upgrades that were shown as approved and completed in the tracking system in fact were not completed, and the requests for the upgrades had been cancelled; and (2) some approved upgrades shown in the system as completed weren’t complete, and in fact the related security equipment was boxed and stored. According to GSA, these errors occurred because GSA personnel didn’t always appropriately or accurately record the status of the upgrades in the tracking system. In addition to these errors related to upgrades approved, completed, and cancelled in the tracking system, we have concerns about whether all GSA buildings have been evaluated for security needs. We found that, as of October 1997, the nationwide upgrade tracking system contained little or no evidence that building security evaluations had been done for 754 GSA buildings, 14 of which were level-IV buildings. We judgmentally selected a sample of 26 of the 754 buildings and attempted to determine whether a security evaluation had been done by contacting a representative from each building’s security committee during December 1997 and January 1998. Representatives from 22 of the 26 buildings responded. Of the 22, representatives of 5 buildings told us that a building evaluation wasn’t done, 6 said they weren’t sure whether one was done, and 7 representatives said that the evaluations were done, but the remaining 4 representatives said that evaluations weren’t applicable for their buildings because (1) the lease for the federal agency tenants in the building had been terminated, (2) the building was leased and used only for storage purposes, (3) the building was a maintenance garage with access limited to agency personnel, and (4) the building was no longer in use. For the 11 building representatives that said a building evaluation was not done or that they weren’t sure, we asked whether they believed that their buildings’ current levels of security met the DOJ minimum standards. Representatives of four buildings said “yes”; five said they didn’t know; and two said that the standards weren’t applicable to their specific buildings because the agencies were moving out of the buildings. Four of the five that said they didn’t know also said that they weren’t aware of the DOJ minimum security standards. Similarly, we found no evidence in GSA’s building files that security evaluations had been done for a number of buildings that had no requests for security upgrades in the tracking system. During the latter part of 1997, we judgmentally selected 50 buildings in two GSA regions that showed no requests for security upgrades in the tracking system, and we found no evaluations on file for 12, or 24 percent, of the buildings. GSA had initially classified 3 of these 12 buildings as level IVs, 8 as level IIIs, and 1 as level II. Ten of the 12 buildings were in one GSA region. FPS officials told us that they weren’t sure whether evaluations had been done for all GSA buildings. They said that although they had attempted to obtain evaluations for all buildings, not all BSCs had provided evaluations. In addition to being unable to reliably determine the program’s operational and implementation status, we also 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. Further, we couldn’t determine the actual costs incurred by type of security upgrade because GSA said that its accounting system was not designed to account for costs by upgrade type. Nevertheless, based on the existing accounting system data, we estimate that from October 1, 1995, through March 31, 1998, GSA obligated roughly $353 million for the building security upgrade program nationally. The source of those funds was the FBF. As you know, the Fund consists primarily of rent that GSA charges federal agencies for space and is administered by GSA. It is the primary means of financing the capital and operating costs associated with GSA-controlled federal space. unneeded upgrade funding allowances that could be shifted to regions in need of funds to complete upgrades. In FPS’ analysis, it identified over $5 million in obligations shown in the accounting system for upgrades in 109 buildings in 10 GSA regions for which there were no corresponding approved upgrades shown in the tracking system.