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According to Strengthening the National
Park Service Construction Program, the Park Service "has
no construction project management system for exercising effective
oversight . . . ." In addition, the report states "There
are no clear lines of authority and accountability for a total
project within the Park Service, nor is there general agreement
among the different levels and elements as to who is accountable
for a project's success or failure."
The report was mandated by the House Appropriations
Subcommittee on Interior and Related Agencies, which is chaired
by Representative Ralph Regula. The Department of the Interior
asked an Academy panel, chaired by Fellow Royce Hanson, to
examine the overall management of the Park Service's construction
program and focus in particular on the Denver Service Center,
whose design and construction practices the panel found contribute
significantly to excessive costs. To make the construction
program more cost effective, the report calls for major staffing
and management changes at the Center.
Cost overruns often go unchecked, the panel
discovered, because of the highly insular organizational culture
of the Park Service, which prevents a public perspective in
reviews of construction projects. According to the report,
there is a widely held attitude among Park Service managers
"that the park system and Park Service responsibilities
are unique and that there is only one 'right approach'"
to construction projects. "This organizational culture,
with its similar values regarding facility aesthetics and
features, contributes to the construction of facilities whose
costs the Park Service views as perfectly reasonable but the
public sees as extravagant," the report states.
The panel urges the Park Service to adopt
an effective and comprehensive construction management system.
According to the report, such a system must relate to project
scope, schedule, and all costs, including design, supervision,
and inspection, and provide reports on a frequent basis. To
manage the system and exercise oversight for the Park Service
director, the panel recommends establishing a small staff
of project management professionals in the Office of the Associate
Director of Professional Services at Park Service headquarters.
In order to establish accountability, the
report recommends that responsibility for line-item construction
projects be assigned to park superintendents. According to
the report, park superintendents should be given the "authority
and appropriate training and support to ensure that they can
successfully discharge these functions." The panel suggest
making cost-effective construction an important element of
the park superintendents' performance evaluation.
To further assure the cost-effectiveness
and suitability of construction projects, the report calls
for an external review group with experience in design and
management of large-scale construction projects, to review
line-item projects prior to congressional budget submission
and report its findings to the NPS director.
Specifically, the panel found that reliance
on the in-house design and construction supervision capabilities
of the Denver Service Center is too costly. The report identifies
a number of practices by the Denver Service Center that directly
contribute to the high cost of the construction program:
- emphasis on custom designs as opposed
to standard designs amenable to local conditions
- overly rigid specifications that lead
to costly bids and construction methods that preclude bids
by small, but capable contractors
- weak cost-estimating capability
- inaccurate assessments of construction
market conditions
- construction and engineering practices
and materials not justified by cost-benefit analyses
According to the report, major cost savings
could be realized by contracting out "about 90 percent
of the design work and all of the construction supervision
and inspection" that now resides at the Denver Service
Center. "To assure that the Denver Service Center maintains
a core design capability, it should retain sufficient staff
to handle about 10 percent of the design work," the report
states. The panel recommends that these changes be adopted
by fiscal year 2000.
To be more cost effective and efficient,
the report states, the Denver Service Center should:
- make planning and construction management
of contracts a critical and major function
- use architectural/engineering firms that
have experience in the general locale
- adopt standardized design and construction
practices, and obtain professional services to prepare standard
design drawings and specifications
To benefit fully from the report's recommendations,
the panel believes, the organizational culture of the Park
Service needs to change to incorporate greater concern for
economical solutions, which will require a balance in aesthetics
and cost-effective construction features.
"If implemented, the panel's recommendations
will transform the Park Service and the Denver Service Center
from a primary provider of design and construction supervision
services to a smart buyer of those services from the private
sector," said Royce Hanson, professor of political economy
at the University of Texas at Dallas. "This will bring
the Park Service in line with other cost-effective construction
programs in the federal service."
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Strengthening the National Park Service
Construction Program, Order # 98-04, is published by the National
Academy of Public Administration. Copies may be purchased
for $15.00 plus shipping by calling Academy Publications at
301-617-7801.
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