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GSA Faces Backlog of Health and Safety Risks in Public Buildings
A recent assessment by the General Services Administration’s (GSA) inspector general (OIG) has revealed a troubling 10-year backlog of unresolved health and safety issues, as well as fire hazards in public buildings nationwide. This situation has raised concerns regarding compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations aimed at safeguarding employee health and safety.
The investigation was prompted by a June 2023 hotline complaint alleging violations of OSHA regulations. In response, the OIG analyzed substantial data, uncovering 35,955 actionable risk conditions reported by the Public Buildings Service (PBS), which dates back to October 1, 2013.
“The data indicates that over 5,000 risk conditions remain unaddressed or lack an abatement plan within the requisite 30-day timeframe mandated by OSHA,” the OIG stated. “To ensure the safety of building occupants and to protect federal properties, it is imperative that hazardous conditions in GSA-managed assets are rectified promptly.”
The OIG’s assessment characterizes open risk conditions as any potential threats to the safety of individuals within GSA-managed facilities. These issues range from inadequate signage and blocked fire exits to the presence of hazardous materials. The backlog spans nearly 2,000 GSA properties across the country, illustrating the scale of the problem.
Among the regions, the PBS Southeast Sunbelt reported the highest number of unresolved risk conditions, totaling nearly 13,000 across 207 buildings and leased spaces. Following this was the National Capital Region, which had more than 5,800 such conditions across 420 assets, while the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions also faced significant challenges.
Two particularly alarming safety concerns were highlighted in the OIG memorandum. Notably, at the Charles E. Chamberlain Federal Building and U.S. Post Office in Lansing, Michigan, a fire risk assessment conducted in March 2017 recommended a full sprinkler system installation that remains uncompleted as of November 22, 2023.
Another serious threat resides at One White Flint North in Bethesda, Maryland, home to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission headquarters. A safety evaluation from May 2019 identified falling stones from the building’s façade as posing “an immediate and potentially imminent danger” to both employees and the public, yet this issue also remains unresolved as of the same date.
The Facilities Risk Management Division Director of PBS noted that each PBS region evaluates the status of open risk conditions and the development of abatement plans throughout the year. These assessments are further analyzed annually, although as evidenced by the data, a large number of outstanding risk conditions persist across GSA-managed facilities.
In response to the findings, PBS Commissioner Elliot Doomes acknowledged the issues raised by the OIG and emphasized the agency’s commitment to prioritizing additional funding to mitigate the open risk conditions. He also highlighted advancements in PBS’s database that enhance tracking of abatement efforts, alongside performance metrics tied to 1,300 staff members.
This memorandum arrives on the heels of a previous OIG report indicating that PBS officials in Detroit failed to adequately respond to water quality concerns involving potentially hazardous levels of lead, copper, and Legionella bacteria in a federal building. This inaction forced tenant agencies to independently implement measures to protect their employees.
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