Government Business Operations Issue Area Plan--Fiscal Years 1996-97
(Letter Report, 06/01/96, GAO/IAP-96-16).

GAO presented its Government Business Operations issue area plan for
fiscal years 1996 and 1997.

GAO plans to focus on: (1) effective acquisition, use, and disposition
of government assets to reduce costs and provide a greater return on
investment; (2) improved management systems and processes; (3) meeting
agency goals and consumers' needs; and (4) improved and more efficient
operations through alternative strategies for providing service.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  IAP-96-16
     TITLE:  Government Business Operations Issue Area Plan--Fiscal 
             Years 1996-97
      DATE:  06/01/96
   SUBJECT:  Federal procurement
             Cost control
             Property disposal
             Facility maintenance
             Federal office buildings
             Customer service
             Surplus federal property

             
******************************************************************
** This file contains an ASCII representation of the text of a  **
** GAO report.  Delineations within the text indicating chapter **
** titles, headings, and bullets are preserved.  Major          **
** divisions and subdivisions of the text, such as Chapters,    **
** Sections, and Appendixes, are identified by double and       **
** single lines.  The numbers on the right end of these lines   **
** indicate the position of each of the subsections in the      **
** document outline.  These numbers do NOT correspond with the  **
** page numbers of the printed product.                         **
**                                                              **
** No attempt has been made to display graphic images, although **
** figure captions are reproduced.  Tables are included, but    **
** may not resemble those in the printed version.               **
**                                                              **
** Please see the PDF (Portable Document Format) file, when     **
** available, for a complete electronic file of the printed     **
** document's contents.                                         **
**                                                              **
** A printed copy of this report may be obtained from the GAO   **
** Document Distribution Center.  For further details, please   **
** send an e-mail message to:                                   **
**                                                              **
**                                            **
**                                                              **
** with the message 'info' in the body.                         **
******************************************************************


Cover
================================================================ COVER


General Government Division

June 1996

GOVERNMENT BUSINESS OPERATIONS
ISSUE AREA PLAN - FISCAL YEARS
1996-97

GAO/IAP-96-16



Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV


FOREWORD
============================================================ Chapter 0

As the investigative arm of Congress and the nation's auditor, the
General Accounting Office is charged with following the federal
dollar wherever it goes.  Reflecting stringent standards of
objectivity and independence, GAO's audits, evaluations, and
investigations promote a more efficient and cost-effective
government; expose waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in federal
programs; help Congress target budget reductions; assess financial
and information management; and alert Congress to developing trends
that may have significant fiscal or budgetary consequences.  In
fulfilling its responsibilities, GAO performs original research and
uses hundreds of databases or creates its own when information is
unavailable elsewhere. 

To ensure that GAO's resources are directed toward the most important
issues facing Congress, each of GAO's 32 issue areas develops a
strategic plan that describes the significance of the issues it
addresses, its objectives, and the focus of its work.  Each issue
area relies heavily on input from congressional committees, agency
officials, and subject-matter experts in developing its strategic
plan. 

The Government Business Operations issue area does program and
evaluation work involving operations and activities of the General
Services Administration, which controls or oversees over $60 billion
in annual government spending, and the U.S.  Postal Service, which
has revenue in excess of $55 billion annually.  Additionally, this
issue area operates a special response group, which coordinates all
work regarding White House operations as well as responds to
congressional inquiries regarding numerous other federal agency
activities, such as the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S.  Mint, and
the Library of Congress. 

We have recently issued testimony on federal courthouse construction
and how a more disciplined approach could reduce costs.  We also
issued reports on the Postal Service's new focus on improving service
quality and customer satisfaction, international mail services, and
how better care is needed for National Air and Space Museum aircraft. 
We also have issued a large number of reports on the operations and
management of the Resolution Trust Corporation, which closed
operation in December 1995. 

The principal themes in the government business operations area are

  -- effective acquisition, use, and disposition of government assets
     to reduce costs and provide a greater return on investment;

  -- improved management for greater responsiveness in meeting agency
     goals and consumers' needs; and

  -- improved and more efficient operations through alternative
     strategies for providing service. 

The pages that follow describe key planned work on these themes. 

Because events may significantly affect even the best of plans, our
planning process allows for updating the plan to respond quickly to
emerging issues.  If you have any questions or suggestions about this
plan, please call me at (202) 512-8387. 

J.  William Gadsby
Director
Government Business Operations Issues


CONTENTS
============================================================ Chapter 1


   FOREWORD
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:1

1


   TABLE I:  KEY ISSUES
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:2

4


   TABLE II:  PLANNED MAJOR WORK
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:3

6


   TABLE III:  GAO CONTACTS
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:4

7


TABLE I:  KEY ISSUES
============================================================ Chapter 2

Issue                                    Significance
---------------------------------------  ---------------------------------------
Asset and support services acquisition:  The General Services Administration
Are facilities, goods, and services      (GSA) acts as the main government focal
acquired in the most effective,          point for over $60 billion of federal
efficient and economical way to achieve  procurements each year ranging from
mission goals and return on investment?  buildings and telecommunications
                                         equipment to everyday support services.
                                         Postal Service acquisition programs
                                         constitute several billion dollars each
                                         year primarily in support of meeting
                                         customer needs and accurate and timely
                                         delivery of the mail to over 223
                                         million locations daily moving over 177
                                         billion pieces of mail annually.



Asset maintenance and use: Are           GSA maintains over 1,700 federal
maintenance and use of financial         buildings whose operation,
assets, facilities, goods, and services  modernization, and general maintenance
being used to optimize value, reduce     require continuous oversight and
costs and achieve mission goals?         attention. The proper maintenance of
                                         these buildings is critical to the
                                         quality, health, safety, and usefulness
                                         of hundreds of thousands of federal
                                         employees. Proper maintenance is vital
                                         to maintaining their service value as
                                         well as ensuring continued income
                                         producing capability commensurate with
                                         the private sector.



Asset disposition: Are asset             Congressional oversight assumes even
disposition policies and practices       greater importance as the inventory of
maximizing benefits to the government    federal historic buildings grows; and
and U.S. citizens?                       the buildings deteriorate for lack of
                                         renovation,which is needed to establish
                                         them as entities capable of housing
                                         tenants, consistent with current
                                         technology. This could be especially
                                         true for the Courthouse construction
                                         program where large numbers of old
                                         courthouses will become available for
                                         disposition or modernization as new
                                         courthouses are constructed. With
                                         federal downsizing and budget deficits
                                         as a watchword these issues remain at
                                         the forefront.


Management improvement: Are management   GSA and the Postal Service are key
systems and processes improving          providers of services that contribute
performance and responsive to customer   to smooth government operation as well
needs?                                   as provide for a vital network of
                                         communication for business transactions
                                         and household to household contacts.








--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Objectives                               Focus of work
---------------------------------------  ---------------------------------------
 Improve agency capabilities to plan    Monitor implementation of prior
for long-and short-term needs and        recommendations
satisfy them.                            Assess ongoing major reform efforts
                                         Examine agency controls to prevent
 Improve the federal acquisition        waste, fraud, and abuse
process by streamlining policies and     Evaluate profitability of selected
procedures, improving contracting        pieces of currency ($1 coin, penny,
systems, and making the process more     commemorative coin)
responsive.

 Identify obstacles that impede cost-
effective, businesslike acquisitions
and assess their impact.


 Improve maintenance and use of real    Examine systemic obstacles, such as
and other property used to enhance       budgetary limitations and lack of
mission accomplishment and               strategic planning, which impede cost-
productivity.                            effective approaches.
                                         Focus on agency best practices and
 Promote the adoption of more           initiatives.
economically sound, businesslike         Inform Congress and agency leaders of
practices in maintaining and using       best practices for inclusion in other
properties as valuable national          businesslike activities.
assets.

 Promote the adoption of "best
practices" in the real estate
management area.


 Promote the adoption of innovative,    Focus on process incentives to
economically sound, businesslike         illustrate need for private sector
incentives and strategies for disposing  strategies.
of government assets, which improve the  Work with executive branch and
return on investment to the government   congressional officials to design
and the taxpayer.                        better approaches for identifing and
                                         closing facilities deemed no longer
 Improve federal agencies'              needed.
organizational structures and processes
for disposing of real and personal
property and financial assets.




 Identify opportunities to promote      Review and evaluate agency management
improvements in agency systems and       systems and processes.
practices.                               Identify objective measurement
                                         systems.
 Evaluate how agency management reform  Examine results from program
initiatives are tracked and what         implementation of managment
progress they show.                      improvments.
                                         Review surveys of customer
 Assess whether agencies are achieving  satisfaction and evaluate measurement
mandated social policy goals in real     techniques.
estate asset disposition programs.

 Insure quality management efforts
result in improved service and
responsiveness to customers.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE II:  PLANNED MAJOR WORK
============================================================ Chapter 3

Issue                      Planned major job starts
-------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------
Asset and support           Deployment of automation equipment related to
services acquisition       delivery point sequencing of mail
                            Executive travel
                            Building security and safety
                            Management information to oversee building
                           contractors


Asset maintenance           Economical alternatives for providing services in
and use                    areas currently not providing sufficient return on
                           investment
                            GSA's building modernization program
                            Housing plan for the Federal Triangle Building


Asset disposition           Disposition of old courthouses


Management improvement      Monitoring of GSA ongoing major reform efforts
                            Role and mission of the Board of Governors and
                           Postal Rate Commission
                            Adequacy of Postal Service controls over $55
                           billion in Postal revenue
                            Canadian postal ratemaking procedures
                            Postal rate changes resulting from elimination of
                           the mail monopoly
                            Customer needs and desire for mailbox restrictions
                            Postal initiatives to improve working conditions
                           and organizational performance
                            Opportunities to consolidate government mail
                           processing
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE III:  GAO CONTACTS
============================================================ Chapter 4


      DIRECTOR
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.1

J.  William Gadsby (202) 512-8387


      ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.2

Michael E.  Motley (202) 512-8126


      ASSISTANT DIRECTORS
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.3

John S.  Baldwin Sr.
Gerald P.  Barnes
James T.  Campbell
Ronald L.  King
Gerald Stankosky

*** End of document. ***