Waste of the Day: Contractors Left Mold, Leaky Pipes in Public Buildings

Topline: The General Services Administration spent $1.2 billion last year on 340 contracts for maintenance in public buildings around the country, but a recent inspector general report says companies are not “complying with the terms” of those contracts.

Public buildings work not done though marked done

Key facts: Auditors inspected six GSA buildings whose maintenance contracts cost a total of $184 million. They found that 69% of work orders in the buildings were not completed properly, even though employees marked them as finished. Heating systems, emergency generators and more were left unfixed for nearly a year.

Urgent work orders are required to be completed within 24 hours, but only 6% actually were, the IG report found.

At the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building in Portland, Or., where the GSA spends $2.2 million for maintenance, staffers were sent to fix a fire system water tank. The work order was marked as complete for at least nine months even though the tank still had cracks in it, risking failure of the building’s sprinkler system.

The GSA spends $24.2 million for upkeep at Georgia’s San Nunn Atlanta Federal Center, where cooling systems are required to be cleaned every three months. Employees independently decided to clean the systems less often and cancelled work orders requesting repairs. Auditors found mold and fungus growing in the cooling systems, increasing the risk of disease.

Maintenance at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York City costs $97 million. Employees claimed to have fixed a leaky pipe dripping directly onto the building’s central electrical equipment in November 2022, but auditors found the pipe still leaking in January 2023, the IG found.

Reports 15 months late

Contractors are supposed to review their own performance monthly, but auditors found buildings that had not submitted reports in 15 months.

Auditors blamed both the GSA and the private contractors for the issues. They said the GSA “does not always provide effective oversight” of building maintenance, and the contractors are not dedicating enough staff towards completing work orders.

Background: The Government Accountability Office reported in March that 638 GSA buildings are not meeting required deadlines for asbestos inspections.

But rather than fix their damaged infrastructure, the GSA has been spending money on items like luxury furniture.

OpenTheBooks previously reported that the GSA spent $308 million on furniture during the pandemic, even though nearly all employees were working from home.

The research helped inspire a House Oversight Committee hearing where lawmakers grilled GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan over the agency’s wasteful spending.

Summary: It shouldn’t take a federal audit to see that water is still dripping from a leaky pipe. Some government mishaps require only plain common sense to expose.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.,

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.