The District has wasted millions of taxpayer dollars due to mismanagement of its real estate portfolio, a new Inspector General audit found.
Inspector General Daniel W. Lucas released an audit Thursday showing that D.C.'s Department of General Services has failed to adequately keep track of its properties, likely causing it to lease more space than it needs, the Washington Post reports.
By reviewing tax records, Lucas found D.C. owns properties that were not accounted for in the DGS database, and that the database lacked important information on the properties it included. This creates a risk the city could lease buildings it does not need, the audit said, because it does not have an accurate sense of how much real estate is already in its portfolio.
The audit also found that D.C. failed to collect $4.85M in rent from tenants leasing its properties. DGS officials said the audit was incorrect and that the actual total of unpaid rent was closer to $3M.
Additionally, the audit said that D.C. has overpaid a private brokerage firm, Savills Studley, with which it has worked since 2014. It said the city renewed its contract with the broker without a competitive bidding process. It also found D.C. paid Savills Studley on a per-square-foot basis, which can lead to excessive fees, and in some cases just overpaid outright. Lucas said Savills Studley owes the city $633K.
Savills Studley and DGS did not respond to requests for comment.
