San Antonio Real Property Maintenance Area: Overview of a Regional Consolidation of Base Support Services

摘要

This note reports on a survey of operating experience in the San Antonio Real Property Agency (SARPMA)--an organization formed to consolidate buildings and grounds maintenance functions for four Air Force bases, an Army post, and several smaller, auxilliary facilities in and around San Antonio, Texas. The information collected in the survey suggests that: SARPMA is probably not achieving the primary purpose of the consolidation--to provide real property maintenance services to its customer bases at lower cost to the government. The centralized organization is less responsive to providing services than conventional, base-level organizations, and it is less sensitive to the urgency and priorities of the bases' requirements. Management innovations and improvements have been and are being undertaken, but some of these can probably be applied to base-level organizations and provide similar benefits without requiring consolidation. The conclusions regarding costs are tentative because no full cost analysis of SARPMA operations has been done. (Author)