IG to investigate federal offices left vacant by telework policies

A federal inspector general has opened an investigation into telework policies that have turned some government offices into ghost towns, risking the spread of disease and raising questions about how agencies deliver services.

The inspector general for the General Services Administration, which acts as the chief landlord for civilian executive branch agencies, confirmed the work in a letter to Sen. Joni Ernst, Iowa Republican, who says the government has not fully grappled with a host of questions about the barren buildings.

“My office shares your concerns about the effect of telework on GSA’s ability to carry out its mission effectively and efficiently,” acting Inspector General Robert Erickson told Ms. Ernst in a letter, which The Washington Times obtained. “My office plans to continue to devote attention to GSA’s space utilization in our future oversight efforts.”

Mr. Erickson’s office has conducted groundbreaking work on water supplies at understaffed federal buildings and found at least six with the bacterium that causes Legionnaires’ disease, a type of serious lung infection. One case of the disease has been linked to one of those buildings.

Investigators said stagnating water in buildings left vacant by the COVID-19 pandemic turned into breeding grounds for bacteria.

The inspector general has issued an urgent alert dinging GSA for failing to test water supplies in child care centers in agency-run buildings before reopening them.

The inspector general, in a statement to The Times, confirmed its interest in telework policies. That includes an ongoing audit of how the agency accounts for telework and remote positions as it manages its vast real estate empire.

Ms. Ernst said it’s time the rest of the government takes the issue as seriously.

“Every day this is put off, more dollars go down the drain to fuel the D.C. swamp,” she told The Times. “There’s no better way to start paying off our nation’s over $33 trillion debt than a clearance sale on unused office space.”

The issue could be raised as early as Thursday, when GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan is scheduled to defend her agency’s actions before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.

GSA owns 1,600 buildings and leases space in 6,500 others, comprising more than 360 million square feet of office space. That exceeds all the commercial office space in cities such as Los Angeles or Chicago.

GSA told Congress this summer that it was working to figure out office space needs in the new remote work environment, but officials said completion of the study would require more congressional funding.

While GSA acts as the chief landlord, the agencies that fill the federal offices have roles to play, said Ms. Ernst, one of Congress’ top waste-watchers.

Last month, she fired off letters prodding all the government’s inspectors general to look at the agencies under their purview and determine whether they have grappled with the telework world.

She pointed to a study of key card use in the Washington area, where just 5% of the pre-pandemic workforce swiped in at a government-leased office building during two months in 2022.

She highlighted the case of a manager at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Atlanta who posted a photo to social media bragging that he was logging in to a work meeting from a bubble bath.

“It’s time for Biden’s bubble bath bureaucrats to get back to work or forfeit their expensive, unused office space,” the senator told The Times.

Beyond the outrageous cases, Ms. Ernst said money is at stake. Federal pay is often adjusted to compensate people who work in areas with higher living costs, but employees who work remotely may no longer qualify for the added funds.

Taxpayers are shelling out for vacant office space, Ms. Ernst said.

“It appears hybrid and remote working is now standard practice for the federal workforce. So, it is imperative for taxpayers and those being served by federal programs that costs and outcomes are not negatively impacted by the arrangement,” Ms. Ernst wrote in her letter to the inspector general community.

The Legionnaires’ disease case is particularly troubling.

In the alert last month, the GSA inspector general said elevated levels of Legionella, the bacterium that causes the disease, were detected in six GSA-controlled buildings in July and August. Two buildings were in Chicago, and the others were in Utah, Nebraska, Michigan and New York.

That New York building is the border crossing between Canada and Lewiston, where an employee contracted Legionnaires’ disease.

The owner refused to test the water supply at the leased space, so GSA hired its own testing company in August. Those tests confirmed that Legionella was found in restrooms, a break room and shower areas in locker rooms.

The testing confirmed that the bacteria didn’t come from outside and likely formed inside the building’s piping system.

“The elevated levels of Legionella have occurred at a time of reduced building occupancy levels. Reduced occupancy can cause water stagnation in buildings and allows Legionella to grow and spread, thereby increasing the likelihood of Legionella contamination in other GSA-controlled buildings,” the inspector general said.

With worries about empty buildings mounting, keeping employees home is sometimes safer.

Federal workers in San Francisco this summer were directed to work from home rather than show up at the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building because of the open-air drug market, homeless encampment and rampant crime that have sprung up on the sidewalks outside the building.

The scene was so bad that authorities turned to a time-tested solution — a fence — to block drug dealers from one prime drug-dealing spot.

For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.