DOD Real Property: Actions Needed to Improve Oversight of Underutilized and Excess Facilities
SCALE
- Over 700,000 DOD facilities with a combined replacement value of about $2.2 trillion, as of fiscal year 2023.
- $181.1 billion deferred-maintenance backlog, against average annual spending of $14.6 billion on new construction and $15.3 billion on maintenance and repair.
- 2,283 facilities reported excess and 2,170 disposed of, across all services, in fiscal year 2022.
- Non-generalizable sample of 19 installations reviewed, 8 visited in person, selected based on excess, surplus and low-utilization data.
PERFORMANCE ASPECT
Economy
- DOD funded only about 80 percent of its facility sustainment requirements against its own 90 percent target, contributing to the $181.1 billion deferred-maintenance backlog.
Efficiency
- Services have piloted space-utilization tools (the Army's RPSA/ePRISMS, the Navy's Shore Facilities Planning System and Facility Investment Model) and "demolition banks" that offset new construction with disposal of similar square footage elsewhere.
- Installations increasingly rely on relocatable facilities such as trailers to meet unexpected space needs, but several ended up funding long-term maintenance for what were meant to be temporary structures.
Effectiveness
- Utilization data are inconsistent and, in cases GAO observed on-site (e.g. a headquarters building showing 28% utilization that appeared nearly fully occupied), inaccurate, undermining DOD and congressional decision-making.
- Without risk-management guidance, installations cannot resolve competing sustainment/demolition priorities: Fort Bliss could not fund the $14 million disposal of an old hospital, and the Navy's demolition backlog is estimated at $700 million.
1. Various organizations measure facility utilization differently, undermining consolidated data
Data management
"The Navy and Marine Corps calculate an average utilization rate across a set of similar facilities rather than calculate utilization of individual facilities... Army officials stated the service directly inputs facility utilization rates into its real property information system. However, we found since fiscal year 2020 that the Army has not reported any underutilized property in active operational status. For example, in the fiscal year 2022 RPAD data, the Army reported 5,521 underutilized facilities, all of which showed 0-percent utilization." (GAO-25-106132, p. 10)
- Domains: national-defence
- Portfolio: Maintenance of infrastructure
- Function: monitoring
- Quality: Reliable, integrated information base
2. Organizations not held accountable for following its own utilization guidance
Responsibility
"military service officials said that they are aware they are not following ASD (EI&E) guidance and that they expect utilization data are inaccurate. Since ensuring the accuracy of utilization rates is not a priority, DOD has not held them accountable for following its guidance and improving data quality." (GAO-25-106132, p. 11)
- Domains: national-defence
- Portfolio: Maintenance of infrastructure
- Function: governance
- Quality: Functioning oversight and governance
3. Without detailed guidance on risk assessing, sustainment, use and disposal can't be optimized
Guidance
"installation officials told us that they are limited in their ability to optimize their facilities because the military services have not issued detailed guidance specifying how they should assess and manage risks associated with their real property inventory, including determining how to weigh competing priorities relating to sustainment, use, and disposal of property." (GAO-25-106132, p. 23)
- Domains: national-defence
- Portfolio: Maintenance of infrastructure
- Function: planning
- Quality: Sound risk management
4. Historic and aging buildings must be kept in usable condition even when they sit vacant
Procedures
"officials at Fort Bliss explained that they have some historic buildings that are not in use because of their poor condition and age. However, they noted that Fort Bliss is still required to do certain types of maintenance on these buildings, such as replacement of their roofs." (GAO-25-106132, p. 17-18)
- Domains: national-defence, state-assets
- Portfolio: Maintenance of infrastructure
- Function: infrastructure
- Quality: Cost control and value for money
5. Insufficient dedicated demolition funding leaves excess buildings standing for years
Reporting
"a building at Joint Base Lewis-McChord was declared excess in 2017 and was placed on the demolition list... the building was still in place during our visit... Navy headquarters officials... estimated the Navy's backlog of demolition projects would cost about $700 million to address; about $229 million was funded in fiscal year 2024 and $170 million in fiscal year 2025." (GAO-25-106132, p. 19-22)
- Domains: national-defence, state-assets
- Portfolio: Maintenance of infrastructure
- Function: finance
- Quality: Cost control and value for money
Control focus
| ICS phase | Control function | Cases |
|---|---|---|
| Organic elements of a process | Data management | 1. Various organizations measure facility utilization differently, undermining consolidated data |
| Initial phase | Responsibility | 2. Organizations not held accountable for following its own utilization guidance |
| Guidance | 3. Without detailed guidance on risk assessing, sustainment, use and disposal can't be optimized | |
| Work processes | Procedures | 4. Historic and aging buildings must be kept in usable condition even when they sit vacant |
| Functions applied to all stages | Reporting | 5. Insufficient dedicated demolition funding leaves excess buildings standing for years |
Compliance focus
- DOD Instruction 4165.70 and a 2016 ASD (EI&E) memorandum require standardized measurement and reporting of facility utilization rates by asset type and operational status.
- Military departments must maintain current, validated real property inventories, with physical inventories every 5 years (3 years for historic assets).
- Military services must notify other DOD components of unneeded property before proceeding to dispose of it.
- The Air Force did not fully implement the 2016 utilization-reporting methodology until December 2020, two years after DOD's August 2018 deadline.
osie/domains_publicActivities.xml, osie/portfolio_CUBE.xml, osie/control_ICS-AuditingIC.xml, osie/functions_organizational.xml, osie/qualityConditions.xml) and the internal-control terminology of INTOSAI's Guidance on Auditing Internal Control (ICS), drafted by the Internal Control Standards Subcommittee, which NIK (Poland) chairs. Underlying data: alg_underutizedFacilities.xml (dokAAPp.xsd instance). All readers are encouraged to consult the original report (linked above).