Federal Judiciary Space: Long-Range Planning Process Needs Revision
(Testimony, 10/07/93, GAO/T-GGD-94-18).

The process used by the federal judiciary to estimate its long-range
space needs is plagued by problems that call into question the accuracy
of the judiciary's projections.  GAO found that not all judicial
districts were treated equally, existing space plus unmet needs for
authorized staff was accepted as a baseline without questioning its
appropriateness given a district's current caseload, and projection
methods were not statistically sound and involved a high level of
subjectivity.  Overall, the judiciary's projections were 16-percent
higher than GAO's estimates.  The judiciary's projections involved an
overestimate of about $112 million annually, or $1.1 billion during a
10-year period.  GAO recognizes the difficulty of projecting future
space needs with precision.  By changing its process, however, the
judiciary could obtain more-reliable estimates of future space needs and
provide a better basis for decisionmaking.

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

 REPORTNUM:  T-GGD-94-18
     TITLE:  Federal Judiciary Space: Long-Range Planning Process Needs 
             Revision
      DATE:  10/07/93
   SUBJECT:  Future budget projections
             Federal courts
             Federal office buildings
             Planning
             Human resources utilization
             Cost analysis
             Statistical methods
             Courts (law)
             Work measurement standards

             
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