April 14, 2014

Department of Energy’s Management of Unneeded Real Estate

In order to manage its real property assets, the Department of Energy (Department) utilizes the Facilities Information Management System (FIMS). The Office of Acquisition and Project Management (OAPM), under the Department's Office of Management, has primary responsibility for the administration and maintenance of the FIMS database, which provides the Department with an inventory and management tool that assists with planning and managing all real property assets. 

Our review determined that the Department had a number of controls in place to manage the disposition of Department-owned real estate properties. Nothing came to our attention to indicate that the Department did not comply with the Presidential initiative to reduce the number of excess properties. 

We found that the Department had processes in place for identifying and disposing of excess properties, as well as processes for accumulating and reporting on the associated cost avoidance. Additionally, we noted the Department reported that it had exceeded the cost savings goal for FYs 2010 through 2012, through overall cost avoidance of $580 million. However, we found that opportunities for improving processes related to managing excess properties still exist. We did not make any recommendations in the report.

Topic: Management & Administration