GSA receives corporate real estate award
The H. Bruce Russell Global Innovator’s Awards program, now in its ninth consecutive year, showcases solutions, best practices and innovations in corporate real estate and workplace management.
CB Richard Ellis and Sprint also received H. Bruce Russell Global Innovator’s Awards this year. The three winners were chosen from a group of 10 finalists that presented their cases to a panel of judges at Harvard University on Aug. 1 and 2.
In 2003, the GSA Public Buildings Service established the National 3D-4D-BIM Program to address the challenges of errors and omissions, as-built documentation, tenant phasing, space measurement and energy performance. The program promotes value-added digital visualization, simulation and optimization techniques to improve building design and construction quality, efficiency and customer satisfaction at all stages of project planning, delivery, and life cycle.
The program has proactively and successfully improved the delivery of capital projects. Through its use, the GSA has been able to reduce costs while improving quality, accuracy and efficiency on GSA projects.
GSA changing its lease delegation policy
In other GSA news, the agency announced that it is modifying its lease delegation policy. Changes to the policy will come in the form of a revision to the Federal Management Regulation (FMR) and FMR Bulletin 2008-B1.
According to the GSA, the objective of the change is to provide increased oversight to ensure that agencies using GSA-delegated authority comply with all laws, regulations, executive orders and OMB circulars governing lease acquisitions. The revised process was adopted to address deficiencies highlighted by auditors who reviewed the lease procurement files of agencies using the GSA’s delegated authority.
“As the government’s premier procurement agency, GSA must ensure that the leasing delegation program is being administered in the most effective and efficient manner possible,” GSA Administrator Lurita Doan said. “This modification is aimed at improving consistency, monitoring and other variables that influence the workspace we provide to our client agencies and the cost to the public.”
Doan said that the change also helps the agency better fulfill its mission by enabling client agencies to more fully focus on their core mandates.
“This is precisely why GSA was created—to enable the agencies to target limited resources where they’re most needed,” Doan said.
The GSA’s actions follow reports by the U.S. Government Accountability Office and GSA Inspector General’s Office identifying program weaknesses in the lease delegation policy. Doan said that she was appreciative of the comprehensive effort that gave the agency the opportunity to take corrective action.
Under the revised FMR, agencies will be allowed delegations for lease requests under 20,000 rentable square feet of space.
The change to the delegation program will become effective upon publication in the Federal Register. According to the GSA, Doan also is writing a letter notifying all agency heads of the lease policy change.
“Leasing is one of GSA’s core business functions,” said David Winstead, commissioner of the GSA’s Public Buildings Service. “We have the expertise and the tools to get the best deals for agencies who lease space from GSA.”
