DHS Stumbles in Headquarters Consolidation Project, Says GAO
The Obama administration should revise its plans to relocate and consolidate the Department of Homeland Security headquarters, and Congress may want to consider making future funding for the project contingent on DHS and General Services Administration progress, the General Accountability Office said in a recent report. Completion of the $4.5 billion construction project at the St. Elizabeths Campus in Washington, D.C. is now estimated at 2026. The location is slated to eventually house senior DHS officials and CBP headquarters.
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DHS and GSA officials say the project has received $1.5 billion less in funding than requested for fiscal years 2009-14, GAO said. “According to these officials, this gap has escalated estimated costs by over $1 billion -- from $3.3 billion to the current $4.5 billion—and delayed scheduled completion by over 10 years,” a summary of the report said. “DHS and GSA reported that they have begun to work together to consider changes to their plans, but as of August 2014, they had not announced when new plans will be issued and whether they would fully conform to leading capital decision-making practices to help plan project implementation.”
Meanwhile, members of Congress that chimed in following the release of the GAO report mostly supported GAO’s recommendations for revisions to the plans. “Taxpayers have invested more than $1.5 billion in the DHS headquarters consolidation project at St. Elizabeths,” said Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee ranking member Tom Coburn, R-Okla. (here). “It is disappointing that we don’t yet have a detailed and viable plan for the consolidation. DHS needs to present us with a realistic plan for consolidating its operations while also saving tax dollars by closing some of its leased facilities across the region.”