Real Estate Services (RES), a section within the Facility Management Division (FMD), is the central unit responsible for buying, selling, and leasing properties on behalf of the county. King County owns over $4 billion in real estate assets, and the RES section is one of the first lines of defense in protecting these holdings from illegal and inappropriate activities. It has a key role in assuring that transactions—like buying, selling, and leasing property—are done in a complete and timely way, as unnecessary delays can result in increased costs and liabilities. In addition, the RES section has a responsibility to provide real estate information that is meaningful to decision-makers and other departments.

We found that the RES section does not have adequate procedures in place to protect the county’s real estate portfolio from illegal or inappropriate acts. The RES section has only a limited number of fraud detection and prevention procedures. The RES section’s staff and new management are working to address some issues by establishing policies and procedures. However, without the basic building blocks of a performance management system—like objectives for its operational units and performance metrics—these efforts may be premature and create unnecessary work. The RES section has a real estate inventory, but the utility of this information is limited because it is not complete or reliable. As a result, decision-makers lack crucial information to make informed decisions about county properties.

To resolve these problems, we recommend that FMD and RES develop prevention and detection techniques based on a formal risk assessment and improve employee knowledge of their reporting responsibilities. We further recommend that the RES section work to improve timeliness of real estate transactions, and use fundamental elements of program and performance management to manage its real estate activities. We also recommend ways for the RES section to improve the accuracy and usefulness of county real estate information to decision-makers.

Currently, there are no related reports to this project.