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RCED-00-208R 1 (2000-06-30)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptalzj0001 and id is 1 raw text is: I GAO Accountability * Integrity * Reliability United States General Accounting Office Resources, Community, and Washington, DC 20548 Economic Development Division B-285644 June 30, 2000 The Honorable Larry Combest Chairman The Honorable Charles W. Stenholm Ranking Minority Member Co mmitte e o n Agriculture House of Representatives Subject: U.S. Department of Agriculture: State Office Collocation The Federal Crop Insurance Reform and Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994' directed the Secretary of Agriculture to streamline and reorganize the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to achieve greater efficiency, effectiveness, and economies in its organization and management of programs and activities. Following passage of the act, USDA began a major effort to, among other things, collocate the state offices of its three field-based agencies-the Farm Service Agency (FSA), the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and Rural Development 2 (RD). These state offices provide policy interpretation and technical advice to their field representatives located in USDA county service centers throughout the nation. The county service centers deliver USDA programs to farmers, rural residents, and communities. At the time of the act, these three agencies' state offices could be, and often were, located in different cities within a given state. Collocation therefore meant locating these three state offices at one site in order to share space and administrative personnel and, potentially, to eliminate duplicative overhead expenses. By March 10, 2000, USDA had collocated state offices in 26 states. At that time, USDA also announced its collocation decisions for the three agencies' state offices in the remaining 26 states. These decisions were based on recommendations in collocation plans submitted by officials in USDA state offices. USDA's announcement noted that the moves in these latter 26 states were expected to save $9 million by 2008 and to result in better, more efficient, less costly service to USDA customers. Concerned about the reasonableness of the process USDA used to reach the state collocation decisions announced in March, you asked us to determine (1) what 1P.L. 103-354, Oct. 13, 1994. 2 USDA has 52 state offices, including offices in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the Territory of Guam. GAO/RCED-00-208R State Office Collocation

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