and tools from within the agency were collected, consolidated and the best made mandatory for staff use. These were demonstrated during the training program. Improve Project Management Control Systems. The existing project tracking system should be upgraded, the interface improved, proper data types tracked to support management functions, and clear lines of authority established. The Project Manager should be assigned responsibility for maintaining the data on his or her project. Enhanced linkages to standards, guidelines, and drawings should be incorporated into the new interface. A new project tracking system has been designed and implemented. The Project Information Center (PIC) is web-based and supports the project manager in schedule, scope and budget definition and tracking throughout the life of a project. The system is designed to provide early reporting of "out-of-range" projects and to provide earliest notice of impending procurement and construction actions to the affected AOC divisions. The new system provides real-time status of projects to managers and Superintendents. Custom report formats are being designed to draw specific information from the extensive project data to suit planning, budget, management, Superintendent and support functions, without necessitating conversions to spreadsheets or other formats for analysis. This system is in use and is subject to continuing improvements. Enhance Client Perspective. Client involvement and approval systems should be improved. Firm schedules with due dates and milestones should be required within new tracking systems. Leveraging the knowledge of the various Superintendents' offices should be institutionalized during project initiation processes. The Superintendents' strong, front-line relationship with clients is widely understood and appreciated, and will be more prominently recognized and used to the advantage of all parties in the project planning, scoping, design and construction processes. The Superintendents and their knowledgeable staff have been given additional responsibility for meeting with any client who has requested assistance, preparing an initial statement of scope, and determining if the client's needs can be satisfied by the issuance of a work order to the Superintendent's work forces or if an AOC-wide team needs to be assigned to address the client needs as a full project requiring further scope definition, design and construction. In either the work order or the project delivery process, the Superintendent will remain fully involved with the work and with client communication. Optimize In-House Design and Construction Supervision. The AOC professional staff members should leverage their time by enforcing new published standards and delivery requirements, and by applying their institutional knowledge to those areas that are difficult to delineate in manuals. This will overcome the tendency of AOC Project Managers, acting as stewards of the historic buildings with substantial institutional knowledge, to perform too much of the project quality control for consulting architects and engineers during design phases, by both noting design deficiencies and resolving the problems noted rather than allowing consultants to properly resolve such design issues. AOC project managers have been directed to enforce these new standards. Requirements for pre-reviews of consultant submissions by project managers will optimize the review efforts by AOC staff. The AOC has classified all projects as large, medium or small, and provided project managers with guidance as to the design and review phasing and deliverables appropriate for each size of project. All projects do not require the same number of design stages or the same deliverables for review or at project completion. By classifying projects by size and complexity during the programming phase, both consultant and AOC staff time can be better directed to work appropriate for the project at hand as opposed to simply fulfilling requirements for a typical large project. The AOC has literally hundreds of small projects, dozens of medium sized projects, and a limited number of large projects each year. Large projects typically extend through several funding cycles. The multiple stages of design and review of the work while bidding documents are being prepared are not required for the hundreds of small projects that involve room or suite renovations or restorations of hearing room rostrums, for example. Classifying project size has also begun to reduce the number of meetings held, travel required, reviews conducted, and general paperwork involved. Newly-developed standard review comment forms and "Action-Log" type meeting minutes formats have been provided to project managers. Now in use, these streamline the process of consolidating discipline comments and highlighting needed responses. Enhance Consultant Utilization. The AOC should use consultants more comprehensively during the construction phase. Initial consultant agreements should encompass enhanced construction administration duties to ensure that consultants understand that they will be responsible for overseeing the execution of the work that they design - thus encouraging the production of better construction documents. AOC requirements related to project delivery should be better defined, published and disseminated in the form of guidelines, manuals, checklists, and electronic tools and systems. The AOC has begun to expand its use of external design consultants. This means an increase in the use of “indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity” (IDIQ) professional services contracts and possibly other creative architect and engineer selection procedures that are also fair and competitive on the basis of professional qualifications. The consultants are being assigned to a greater share of responsibility during the construction administration phase, which is a substantial change in AOC practice. Enhance Construction Delivery Methods. The AOC should continue to expand its options for construction delivery to ensure the most balanced and efficient use of AOC staff and the timely completion of work with minimum disturbance to building occupants and visitors. The options will supplement the traditional and dependable quick-response teams and maintenance shops of the Superintendents. Additionally, construction documents should be reviewed and coordinated against refined agency checklists to help reduce document errors. Beyond these traditional options, the use of newer Solution III. Order Contracting (SOC) and Job Order Contracting (JOC) methods, should be The AOC has begun to use SOC contracts with success. For the first time the AOC has Pilot Projects Best practices are being applied to several important projects of the AOC. The continued involvement of consultants in assisting the management teams for these projects is beneficial to the projects and useful in sustaining momentum toward positive change in the agency and especially among the ranks of project managers. The pilots include the Renovation of the Conservatory of the United States Botanic Garden, the Infrastructure Modifications at the Rayburn House Office Building, the Renovation of the Page Dormitory at 501 First Street, and the design and construction of the Capitol Visitor Center. Also included are more comprehensive master plans for the design and construction of fire safety measures throughout the Capitol complex, infrastructure modernizations throughout the United States Capitol, and similar modernizations in the U.S. Supreme Court Building. APPENDIX J Architect of the Capitol Budget Request Summary Fiscal Year 2002 House Subcommittee on Legislative Branch Appropriations Executive Summary The Architect of the Capitol's fiscal year 2002 budget request is $298,957,000. It consists of an operating request of $196,356,000 and a capital request of $102,601,000. The full-time equivalent (FTE) positions remain the same at 2,012. However, funding is requested to fill 48 unfunded positions. The attached graph "FY 2002 Operating and Capital Budget by Categories" breaks out the operating and capital request by significant categories. The graph "FY 2002 Operating and Capital Budget" reflects the history of the Architect of the Capitol's budget since fiscal year 1994. Operating Budget Request The operating budget request includes an $25,749,000 or 15.1 percent increase. Thirty four percent, or $8,753,000 of the increase, is due to mandated pay and benefits costs. Fifty percent, or $12,905,000 of the increase, is related to work load increases and includes $3,446,000 for 48 unfunded positions, $523,000 for project delivery, $968,000 for fire and life safety, $860,000 for information resources management, $154,000 for financial management, $364,000 for energy management, $285,000 for operations, and $292,000 for reopening the Botanic Garden. Price level adjustments account for 20 percent, or $5,141,000, of the increase and are primarily related to fuel costs. A four percent reduction occurred due to the project election year moves being removed from the base as nonrecurring. Over the past year the AOC has undertaken a review of the agency's operations and is in the process of reengineering. As displayed in the attached graph "Full-time Equivalent Employment Budget" staffing has been reduced by more than 16 percent or almost 400 positions since 1992. During the same period workload has increased, especially in the areas of life safety, security initiatives and project oversight. It is important to recognize that we have reached the saturation point where the amount of work to be done in several areas has taxed our staff capacities to the fullest extent. This budget includes requested increases for staff in several critical areas. Funding is requested for 13 positions in the Life Safety Division, 7 positions for project delivery, 10 for information resources management and support, 2 accountants for financial management, 5 for energy management, 5 positions for general operations at the Capitol Power Plant and Library of Congress mainly to supplement the trades staff, and 6 positions for the Botanic Garden to support the reopening of the newly renovated Conservatory. An increase of $3,517,000 is requested for the Information Resources Management Division. As the agency becomes more dependent on automated systems in the areas of financial management, and facilities maintenance it is critical that the hardware and software resources needed to support these systems are available. An increase of $362,000 is requested for life safety operations and maintenance. These resources are required to provide compliant safety and environmental programs and to be proactive in all matters that involve fire and life safety, employee safeguards, environmental monitoring, and discharge of potentially dangerous materials. An increase of $400,000 is requested to support the operation of the new financial management system including an "audit" of pro forma financial statements. Funding of $1,136,000 has been requested in the Botanic Garden related to the operation of the newly renovated Conservatory. Funding of $684,000 has been requested in the Senate Office Buildings to continue the lease at Postal Square. Additional funding of $210,000 has been requested in the House Office Buildings for fixture relamping and also in the Library of Congress for the same purpose at a cost of $370,000. Based on projections from the Department of Energy a net increase of $4,258,000 has been requested to cover rising costs of natural gas,fuel oil and water sewer services for the Capitol Power Plant. Other price level increases totaling $199,000 have been requested throughout the agency. The capital budget request is $102,601,000. This is an increase of $68,139,000 or 197.7 percent over fiscal year 2001. The fiscal year 2002 capital budget request flows from the five-year capital budget initiative undertaken by the agency. It is grounded in a comprehensive and systematic agency-wide planning effort with in-depth involvement by all of the agency's clients. On the House side, we included the Sergeant at Arms, the Chief Administrative Officer and the Clerk of the House. On the Senate side we included the Sergeant at Arms and the Secretary of the Senate. The U.S. Capitol Police provided a detailed outline of their needs, and the Librarian of Congress was also extensively involved. During the development process more than 440 projects were reviewed. Of that number, funding |