56 



Appendix I 



A^g Federal Labormtories Need Bepain 



mad Upgradea 



also raised the threshold allowing epa to make repairs and minor 

 improvements using rad program funds from $25,000 to $75,000. 



In its 1992 fia report, doe also cited deteriorating facilities as a material 

 management weakness, noting that the average age of its 25,000 

 norvnuclear-related buildings, utilities, and other structures is 32 years, doe 

 stated that a departmentwide program is needed to plan for, acquire, 

 maintain, modernize, replace, and/or dispose of its facilities' 

 infrastructure. For example, doe plans to develop an infrastructure 

 replacement program to systematically replace facilities needed for its 

 mission and dispose of unneeded or uryustified facilities that have 

 exceeded their useful lives. In addition, doe program offices have begun to 

 collect maintenance and repair data from operations and maintenance 

 contractors for their laboratories in response to a capital assets 

 management process iiutiated in March 1992. 



NASA, in its FIA reports for 1989-91, cited inadequate maintenance funding 

 for its laboratories and other facilities as a material management 

 weakness. Our December 1990 report also stated that many .vasa facilities 

 had not been adequately maintained and were in degraded condition.* We 

 noted, however, that nasa's Facilities Maintenance Management Branch, 

 formed in 1987, was working with nasa's laboratories and other facilities 

 to defme total maintenance needs and assess facilities' conditions. Since 

 1990 NASA has increased maintenance and repair funding, enabling it to 

 meet the Building Research Board's minimum gmdeline that 2 percent of a 

 facility's current replacement value be used for maintenance and repairs. 

 As a result, nasa stopped identifying facilities maintenance as a 

 management weakness in 1992. In addition, in response to a growing list of 

 needed repairs and renovations identified during nasa's wind tunnel 

 revitalization program, the Associate Administrator for Aeronautics and 

 Space Technology initiated a 5-year program to augment maintenance and 

 instrumentation funding at three laboratories with $15 million of rad funds 

 in fiscal year 1991 that rose to $30 million in fiscal year 1993. 



' NASA MainienancF Stronger Commiuiient Needed lo Curb Facility Detenorauon {GA0/NS1AD-!)1-14 

 Dec, U, 1990) ~~ 



