Federal buildings are safer than they were at the time of the Oklahoma City bombing, but critics say the government's landlord could do a better job of protecting government employees from workplace violence.
The General Services Administration's Public Buildings Service, which acts as the government's landlord, has reported putting about 7,000 security countermeasures into federal buildings since April 1995, when a terrorist bomb killed 168 people and destroyed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. These include security cameras, metal detectors and x-ray machines and obstacles constructed around buildings.
The agency has also boosted its corps of uniformed Federal Protective Service security officers from 376 to 672, with plans to recruit 52 more officers. In addition, the Public Buildings Service has more than doubled the number of contract security guards at government facilities, from 2,300 to more than 5,000.
Because of these efforts, criminal activity is declining in federal workplaces, Public Buildings Service Commissioner Robert Peck testified Thursday before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's public buildings panel. Peck said crimes against people in federal facilities decreased by 6 percent in 1997 and crimes against property decreased 3 percent.
But other witnesses described holes in the agency's $350 million, three-year effort to beef up security.
"Security in federal facilities generally is better today than it was in 1995," said Eugene Waszily, GSA's deputy assistant inspector general for auditing. But he added that "the security countermeasure upgrade program suffered from some serious deficiencies. The overall control and reporting processes were unreliable. Financial resources and human resources were not used to their full potential."
For example, the inspector general's office found $2 million worth of X-ray machines, cameras and metal detectors collecting dust in a Washington Navy Yard warehouse in July 1997, some of which had been shipped to GSA in March 1996. The equipment had been ordered for several Defense Department facilities, but it turned out those facilities needed more sophisticated materials. While the equipment sat in the warehouse, Washington area officials were asking for $6 million for security projects. Not until the IG's investigation did the Public Buildings Service attempt to find a use for the stored equipment.
The IG also found that many of the countermeasures the buildings service said had been placed in federal facilities were actually missing, inoperable or in storage. The buildings service had falsely reported that countermeasures were in place in 32 of the 52 buildings the IG inspected. In one region, managers spent $350,000 earmarked for security upgrades on an unapproved construction renovation project. Waszily said GSA officials quickly took corrective actions following the IG investigation.
Waszily said the Public Buildings Service was under intense pressure to complete as many security upgrades as possible by the first anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing.
"This placed pressure on everyone to move quickly, but it also caused some critical missteps," Waszily said. "It is possible that managers under pressure to achieve goals would have an incentive to report projects completed prematurely if the project implementation encountered major obstacles."
American Federation of Government Employees local union president Tom McGoff, a physical security specialist with the Federal Protective Service, said the buildings service needs to hire more uniformed officers to protect government facilities. The approximately 700 Federal Protective Service officers are responsible for security at 8,000 buildings in 1,200 locations, McGoff said.
"The growing inability of GSA to adequately protect federal facilities may explain why many agencies are opting out of the agency's network for protection purposes," McGoff said. "Those agencies taking a do-it-themselves approach, rather than rely on GSA, include the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration and the United States Marshals Service."
McGoff decried the use of "rent-a-cops" in place of Federal Protective Service officers because contract guards may not receive adequate security training. He also called on Congress to separate the Federal Protective Service out of the Public Buildings Service to give the security service more authority over its programs.
"With all respect to PBS managers, real estate expertise does not always translate to important issues like building security and public safety," McGoff said.
Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio, is proposing to answer many of the union's concerns with legislation that would increase the number of Federal Protective Service officers, move the security service out of the Public Buildings Service and consolidate security services at other agencies, including the Defense Department, into the Federal Protective Service.
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