GSA has a backlog of 36,000 open fire, safety and health risk conditions in federal buildings

The General Services Administration’s federal real estate arm has a 10-year-old backlog of unresolved occupational health and safety, and fire risk conditions at public buildings across the country, its inspector general has found.

Following a June 2023 hotline complaint to the OIG that alleged GSA was in violation of Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations on employee health and safety, the watchdog conducted an assessment to address the complaint, ultimately receiving a database of 35,955 actionable, open risk conditions from GSA component, the Public Buildings Service, from as far back as Oct. 1, 2013.

“The same data shows that there are more than 5,000 open risk conditions that were not corrected or did not have an abatement plan in place within the 30-day period required by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations,” the OIG assessment said. “To protect building occupants and federal property, unsafe or hazardous risk conditions in GSA-managed assets should be addressed in a timely manner.” 

The assessment describes open risk conditions as anything that is a potential danger to people in and around GSA-managed assets, including “a lack of required signage, obstructions in the way of fire exits, or the presence of hazardous materials,” and the backlog found these conditions at nearly 2,000 GSA assets nationwide. 

PBS’ Southeast Sunbelt region had the most open risk conditions in the database, with nearly 13,000 tallied across 207 buildings or leased spaces. The National Capital region came second with more than 5,800 open risk conditions across 420 affected assets, followed by the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions. 

Two of the most serious open risk conditions cited in the OIG memorandum were a high fire risk at the Charles E. Chamberlain Federal Building and U.S. Post Office in Lansing, Michigan, where a March 2017 protection survey recommended a complete sprinkler system installation that had still not been fulfilled by Nov. 22, 2023.

At One White Flint North in Bethesda, Maryland — which includes the Nuclear Regulatory Commission headquarters — a May 2019 safety survey found falling stone from the building’s façade that posed an “immediate and potentially imminent danger to employees and the public,” but remained unresolved as of Nov. 22, 2023. 

“PBS’s Facilities Risk Management Division Director told us that each PBS region reviews the status of: (1) its open risk conditions and (2) abatement plan development throughout the year,” the memorandum said. “In addition, they stated that these statuses are also analyzed yearly by the Facilities Risk Management Division. However, as described above, PBS’s own data shows that tens of thousands of open risk conditions exist across GSA-managed assets nationwide.”

In response to the OIG, PBS commissioner Elliot Doomes said the agency agreed with the findings and would continue to prioritize funding to help close open risk conditions. 

Regarding the risk conditions that remain unabated beyond the 30-day OSHA requirement, Doomes said new functionality in PBS’ database has allowed the agency to better track abatement issues, alongside employee performance requirements tied to 1,300 staff. 

The memorandum follows an OIG report last month that PBS officials in Detroit did not respond quickly to address water quality issues that included potentially harmful levels of lead, copper and Legionella bacteria at a federal building, leading tenant agencies to take their own steps to protect employees.