United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office General Government Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1996-12-31 monographic deposited born digital 40 p. GA 1.13:GGD-97-27 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GGD-97-27 P0b002ee18039552d f:gg97027 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-GGD-97-27 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GGD-97-27 GGD-97-27 Construction costs Strategic planning Federal courts Federal office buildings Government facility construction Oversight by Congress Appropriated funds Prioritizing Letter Report GGD Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts' (AOC) 5-year courthouse construction plan, focusing on whether the 5-year plan: (1) reflects the judiciary's most urgent courthouse construction needs; and (2) provides information needed by decisionmakers to evaluate the relative merit of project proposals.<p/>GAO found that: (1) while the judiciary has developed a methodology for assessing project urgency and a 5-year construction plan to communicate its urgent courthouse construction needs, GAO's analysis suggests that the 5-year plan does not reflect all of the judiciary's most urgent courthouse construction needs; (2) in preparing the 5-year plan, the judiciary developed urgency scores for 45 projects; (3) it did not develop urgency scores for other locations that according to AOC also need new courthouses; (4) GAO's analysis of available data on conditions at the 80 other locations showed that 30 of them likely would receive an urgency score higher than some projects in the plan; (5) for projects that are in the plan, high urgency scores did not always lead to high funding priority; (6) AOC officials said that this was a transitional plan in that it placed heavy emphasis in assigning funding priorities on the projects already in the GSA pipeline rather than solely on project urgency; (7) GAO's work also showed that the judiciary's plan and related material do not present competing projects in a long-term strategic context or articulate a rationale or justification for proposed projects and their relative priority; (8) they do not contain project-specific information on the conditions that exist at each location that would help decisionmakers compare the merits of individual projects, better understand the rationale for funding priorities, and justify funding decisions; and (9) GAO recognizes that the plan is transitional and that it is reasonable for pipeline projects to receive priority consideration for funding, but the plan and related material should make a convincing argument as to why they should be funded before others that have higher urgency scores. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GGD-97-27/html/GAOREPORTS-GGD-97-27.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GGD-97-27/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GGD-97-27.pdf GAO/GGD-97-27 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GGD-97-27 Letter Report GAO/GGD-97-27; Courthouse Construction: Improved 5-Year Plan Could Promote More Informed Decisionmaking; Construction costs Strategic planning Federal courts Federal office buildings Government facility construction Oversight by Congress Appropriated funds Prioritizing