New Army agency to focus on fixing old buildings

The Army is creating a new organization to ensure better management of its 166,000 quickly deteriorating and cash-starved facilities.

Army Maj. Gen. Robert Van Antwerp, assistant Army chief of staff for installation management, said the Army will centralize facilities management beginning in fiscal 2003 under the Installation Management Agency, a new 200-person organization to be housed at the Pentagon. The Army currently does not have a single organization devoted to installation management. Instead, various base commanders are responsible for them.

Van Antwerp said the new agency will place a higher priority on installation management, will help ensure that installation funds are not "robbed" to pay readiness bills, and will set common standards for the frequency of upgrades. For example, the Army will develop a plan to renovate, overhaul or demolish every facility at least every 67 years.

The Defense Department has told each of the services that they need to do a better job of maintaining their buildings. A recent Pentagon survey found that if the services continued at their current pace, it would take 123 years to either renovate or demolish all of Defense's buildings.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said that is unacceptable and has told the services they need to cut that recapitalization rate to 67 years Also, Rumsfeld has argued in favor of closing more military bases because the services cannot adequately maintain their existing infrastructure.

"The focus of the Army has always been on having a trained and ready force. We've taken risk in our installations," said Antwerp, who said the service has funded building repair and maintenance accounts at only 60 to 70 percent of their needed dollars for the past two decades. As a result, he said, the average Army building is 44 years old and is not maintained on any regular schedule. "In recent years, we've been in only 'fix what's broken' mode," he said.

The Army's fiscal 2002 budget has begun to address the problem. Antwerp said the Army has set aside $1.8 billion for building maintenance and repairs, about 94 percent of what is required. Additionally, the Army is trying to free up an additional $1.2 billion by 2007 to get the service on track for meeting Defense's recapitalization goals.