The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is planning to consolidate some of its operations and thousands of its workers at the St. Elizabeths campus in Washington, D.C. Construction began in 2009 and more than $2.8 billion has been appropriated.
In 2014, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that DHS and the General Services Administration’s (GSA) cost and schedule estimates did not fully meet leading cost and schedule estimating practices and were unreliable. GAO recommended DHS and GSA revise their cost and schedule estimates for the remaining portions of the headquarters consolidation project, which the agencies agreed to do.
Recently, GAO reviewed DHS’s Fiscal Year 2022 report on construction at St. Elizabeths and found that it did not contain sufficient cost and schedule information for GAO to perform a comprehensive analysis to assess reliability. GSA reported undertaking a planning and funding reset effort, which will include detailed cost and schedule estimates. However, GSA officials reported that the reset will not be complete until February 2023. GAO said it will continue to monitor DHS’s and GSA’s actions to address its 2014 recommendation to develop revised cost and schedule estimates in accordance with leading practices.
According to DHS and GSA, inconsistent funding has contributed to increased project costs and delays.
