Tight budgets endanger child care centers in federal buildings – By Jessie Bur (Federal Times) / Feb 4 2020
The General Services Administration is responsible for ensuring that all buildings it operates maintain a certain level of security countermeasures, most especially facilities that contain child care programs, ever since the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City killed 168 people and 15 children specifically in its child care center.
But a Jan. 30 audit released by the GSA Inspector General found that all 11 of the child care centers it tested had “significant” security vulnerabilities and did not meet minimum safety standards.
“GSA has the authority and discretion to upgrade GSA-controlled buildings containing child care centers to meet minimum security standards. [Public Buildings Service] officials acknowledged that nothing legally prohibits GSA from implementing security countermeasures,” the report said.
According to GSA official responses to the audit, part of the reason these security countermeasures haven’t been implemented is that doing so would drain the accounts the agency has available to repair and alter its buildings.
When the Department of Homeland Security performs facility security assessments for buildings with child care centers, those findings are presented to the Facility Security Committee, which is composed of representatives from the agencies using the building. That committee then determines whether countermeasures are implemented, and it has declined to do so due to a lack of funding.
Continue to article: https://www.federaltimes.com/management/2020/02/03/tight-budgets-endanger-child-care-centers-in-federal-buildings/
