Summary
Unreliable real property data has been a long-standing problem for federal landholding agencies. Under the President's real property initiative, agencies are being held accountable for, among other things, improving accuracy of their real property inventory and disposing of unneeded property. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), the fourth largest landholding agency, uses the Real Estate Management Information System (REMIS) for recording its civil works inventory. GAO was asked to determine whether REMIS could provide reliable information on the Corps' civil works land disposals from fiscal years 1996 through 2006. GAO's work involved comparison analyses of REMIS disposal data and other Corps reported disposal data, reviews of Corps' real property policies and guidance, and interviews with Corps officials at headquarters, three divisions, four districts, and the Real Estate Systems National Center (RESNC), which manages REMIS.
REMIS did not provide reliable information on the Corps' civil works land disposals from fiscal years 1996 through 2006, or on the land that the Corps owned as of September 30, 2006. Unreliable land disposal data impair the usefulness of REMIS as a record of current inventory and as a source of data that would be useful for budgeting purposes and the strategic management of landholdings. The following contributed to problems with data reliability: The Corps did not maintain internal controls over REMIS disposal data. Corps policy held district real estate officials accountable for the reliability of REMIS data, but in two of four districts GAO contacted the individual recording land disposal data was also checking the data against documentation such as titles and transfer forms. Dividing data entry and data checking responsibilities is an essential internal control activity. Corps policy also required division real estate staff to ensure the reliability of REMIS data recorded by their constituent districts, but the three divisions GAO contacted did not review REMIS disposal data. The design of the REMIS disposal module, a software application that captures disposal data that users enter, did not follow a best practice, commonly referred to as data normalization. Data normalization organizes data according to rules designed to minimize duplication and redundancies. By not following this best practice, users querying REMIS faced the problem of retrieving inconsistent data. For example, when RESNC officials queried REMIS for specific real property information by district, RESNC officials obtained results that differed from those obtained by district officials. Land disposal dates in REMIS were missing or sometimes represented the date when district real estate officials entered the land disposal rather than when the disposal occurred. The vast majority, or about 89 percent, of all disposal records within REMIS did not have disposal dates. When the records contained dates, large numbers of disposals (accounting for about 54,000 acres) in fiscal years 2005 and 2006 had occurred as early as 1955. Guidance for processing land disposals in REMIS was unclear. For example, guidance issued in 2004 did not indicate whether some types of disposals, such as transfers to other federal agencies, required a disposal date. New disposal guidance issued in 2007 was also unclear because RESNC, which revised the guidance, did not revise the data entry screens in REMIS. As a result, the guidance and the data entry screens were inconsistent. While the guidance called for entering a disposal date, the REMIS data entry screens did not clearly indicate whether or where users should enter the date. RESNC provided limited REMIS training; 3 of 32 districts that use REMIS received introductory training in 2006 and 2007. RESNC plans to train the New England District and at least one other district in 2008. RESNC also sponsored conferences to update systems administrators and other users on key changes to REMIS, but conference presenters discussed aspects of REMIS that some attendees, including real estate officials from 2 of the districts GAO contacted, considered too advanced--especially for those who had never received introductory training.
Recommendations
Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.
Director:
Team:
Phone:
Terrell G. Dorn
Government Accountability Office: Physical Infrastructure
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Recommendations for Executive Action
Recommendation: To improve the reliability of REMIS land disposal data for determining how much land the Corps currently owns and for budgeting and strategic land management purposes, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Commanding General and Chief of Engineers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to implement effective internal controls, including segregation of duties and review, over the REMIS land disposal process by incorporating such control into the Corps' real estate policies at those districts and divisions identified in this report and others, where appropriate.
Agency Affected: Department of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: According to DOD and Corps, the modernized Real Estate Management Information System (REMIS) will contain internal control mechanisms to help ensure quality and accuracy of data. Because, the modernized system is scheduled for fiscal year 2011, the Corps has established interim internal control procedures over the disposal process. For example, the Corps requires that a person recording disposal record is not the same person approving the disposal record.
Recommendation: To improve the reliability of REMIS land disposal data for determining how much land the Corps currently owns and for budgeting and strategic land management purposes, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Commanding General and Chief of Engineers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to implement the data normalization best practice in the REMIS database with respect to disposal dates.
Agency Affected: Department of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: According to the Corps, efforts are underway to remove redundant disposal records from Real Estate Management Information System (REMIS) and update REMIS user manuals. The Districts have been provided updated guidance and user training is planned for late FY 2009, which will address the proper entry of disposal data. REMIS disposal screens have been redesigned to capture the appropriate data. However the updated user manuals that explain the disposal process will not be available until after the completion of REMIS modernization. The availability of the user manuals is being delayed to help ensure that the manuals address all implemented changes. Although the actual date when these disposal changes will be completed has not been determined, REMIS modernization is scheduled to last through FY 2011.
Recommendation: To improve the reliability of REMIS land disposal data for determining how much land the Corps currently owns and for budgeting and strategic land management purposes, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Commanding General and Chief of Engineers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to correct the disposal records that were created in REMIS as part of the efforts to adjust the inventory.
Agency Affected: Department of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: Districts have been tasked to perform quality checks of their disposal data and input any missing disposal data, if available. The Corps' Real Estate Systems National Center (RESNC) has run anomaly reports of existing REMIS disposal data and has sent those anomaly reports to districts for resolution. However, there is an ongoing challenge for the Districts to identify necessary funding to complete this task in a timely manner. Districts with a military mission have been provided funding to assist them with these efforts. RESNC continues to run anomaly reports on existing disposal data and send to Districts for correction.
Recommendation: To improve the reliability of REMIS land disposal data for determining how much land the Corps currently owns and for budgeting and strategic land management purposes, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Commanding General and Chief of Engineers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to issue clear guidance for entering land disposal dates in the REMIS land disposal process.
Agency Affected: Department of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: According to the Corps, efforts are underway to update the Real Estate Management Information System (REMIS) users' manuals. However these user manuals will not be available until after the completion of REMIS modernization, which is scheduled to last through FY 2011. The availability of the user manuals is being delayed to help ensure that the manuals address all implemented changes.
Recommendation: To improve the reliability of REMIS land disposal data for determining how much land the Corps currently owns and for budgeting and strategic land management purposes, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Commanding General and Chief of Engineers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide and require introductory and periodic refresher training that covers how to correctly enter land disposal dates in REMIS.
Agency Affected: Department of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: During 2009, The Corps' Real Estate Systems National Center provided its District system administrators a mini-training course on a new Real Estate Management Information System (REMIS) release, which covers Real Property Inventory Reporting compliance. RESNC is planning to provided more detailed training to the system administrators regarding this release, among other things, at the annual REMIS System Administrators training workshop, which is scheduled for August 2009. The workshop will be open to all REMIS users from every district including the real property officers. Moreover, systems administrators will be responsible for training district staff who are unable to attend the workshop. RESNC is also developing comprehensive training plan for REMIS users that is expected to address both basic and continuous training. As part of the plan, training is to be available through various venues, such as on-site at district offices, centralized workshops, and web-based. The plan is scheduled to be approved and implemented in August 2009.
