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The General Accounting Office reviewed the official per-
sonnel records for Coast Guard officers and enlisted personnel
to determine how efficiently the records were being maintained.
The Coast Guard maintains about 6,400 officer and 31,000
enlisted personnel records in two rooms of over 700 and 1,000
square feet, respectively, at the Transpoint Building in
Washington, D.C. The records are stacked on open shelving
about 6 feet high. Neither of the rooms has a sprinkler or
other fire protection system. We believe that the Coast Guard
should acquire fire protection systems to protect the records.
Although the Government leases the Transpoint Building,
Government-occupied space is subject to building firesafety
standards established by the Public Buildings Service (PBS) of
the General Services Administration (GSA). According to PBS
regulations, automatic sprinkler protection is to be provided
for (1) record centers and archives with open file shelving,.
(2) library areas exceeding 1,000 square feet, or (3) library
areas with open shelving higher than 9 feet regardless of size.
According to a PBS official, construction of sprinkler
systems in the storage areas has not been required because PBS
has not inspected the Transpoint Building since the Coast Guard
began occupancy about 1-1/2 years ago. The official said that
PBS inspects buildings for compliance with firesafety require-
ments every 4 years and had the Transpoint Building scheduled
for April 1981. Based on our description of the two storage
areas, the official said he would consider them to be library
areas rather than records centers.
Under the PBS firesafety criteria, the enlisted personnel
records storage area, which exceeds 1,000 square feet, requires
a sprinkler system, whereas such a system is not required for
(941213)
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