Agency relocation was justified by ‘misleading’ information, watchdog finds – By Jessie Bur (Federal Times) / Sept 2 2020
One of the central reasons given by agency leadership for moving the Bureau of Land Management headquarters out of Washington, D.C., to Grand Junction, Colorado, was that the cost of remaining in the D.C. office would exceed the $50 per rentable square foot rate cap established by the General Services Administration.
But according to a Department of Interior Office of Inspector General report published Sept. 1, those assertions were misleading, as the agency could not have renewed its lease on the D.C. space anyway, no matter the cost.
The theoretical cost of the space itself was never estimated by either DOI or GSA, which manages federal property and lease agreements.
According to the report, discussions began in 2016 to allow the lease for the BLM headquarters at 20 M Street in D.C. to end without renewal. Those offices and employees would then be moved to the Stewart Lee Udall DOI Building — otherwise known as the Main Interior Building — which is owned by the government outright.
Continue to article: https://www.federaltimes.com/federal-oversight/watchdogs/2020/09/02/agency-relocation-was-justified-by-misleading-information-watchdog-finds/
