United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1995-06-23 monographic deposited born digital 31 p. GA 1.13:RCED-95-79 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-79 P0b002ee1803a35ea f:rc95079 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-79 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-79 RCED-95-79 National parks Facility construction Construction costs Evaluation methods Appropriated funds Prioritizing Project monitoring Oversight by Congress Construction contracts National Park System Letter Report RCED Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the quality and timeliness of services provided by National Park Services' (NPS) Denver Service Center, focusing on: (1) how NPS sets priorities for funding construction projects and how Congress modifies those priorities during consideration of annual NPS budget requests; (2) the process NPS uses to develop project cost estimates; and (3) the makeup of the projects' contingency and supervision funds.<p/>GAO found that: (1) park managers were generally satisfied with the Center's service quality and timeliness for projects completed during fiscal year (FY) 1991 through FY 1993; (2) reported problems did not appear to be systemic, since they varied among the construction projects and park units; (3) park managers' decisions not to use the Center's services were generally not based on concerns about the quality of those services; (4) NPS sets construction priorities through a bottom-up decision making process with input from individual park units; (5) NPS is planning to revise its priority-setting process, since the current process is not based on objective criteria; (6) Congress often funds construction projects in addition to those on the NPS priority list, and also provides funding levels far above those requested by NPS; (7) the gap between NPS budget requests and appropriations is narrowing because of annual limits on discretionary spending; (8) although the Center develops and refines cost estimates prior to funding requests, congressionally designated projects are often funded before they are planned and designed; (9) contingency and project supervision costs are usually included in project cost estimates; and (10) historically, contingencies and project supervision have accounted for 16 percent and 15 percent, respectively, of a project's cost, but there are no standards for reasonable contingency or supervision costs. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-79/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-79.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-79/pdf/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-79.pdf GAO/RCED-95-79 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-79 Letter Report GAO/RCED-95-79; National Parks: Views on the Denver Service Center and Information on Related Construction Activities; National parks Facility construction Construction costs Evaluation methods Appropriated funds Prioritizing Project monitoring Oversight by Congress Construction contracts National Park System