Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act Restrictions and ...

FLTFA’s Restriction on
Land Available for Sale
Reduces Potential
Revenue
ongoing headquarters effort to oversee and manage sales because states
are responsible for conducting their own sales programs. The realty
managers explained that headquarters does not approve land sales but is
aware of them through reviews of Federal Register notices of the sales.
According to a headquarters official, BLM did not establish FLTFA goals
because BLM lacked realty staff to conduct land sales and other
impediments to sales generally, such as the lack of access, mineral leases,
mining claims, threatened or endangered species habitat, floodplains,
wetlands, cultural resources, hazardous materials, and title problems.
The establishment of goals is an effective management tool for measuring
and achieving results. As we have reported in the past on management
under the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, 20 leading
public sector organizations pursuing results-oriented management
commonly took the following key steps:
defined clear missions and desired outcomes,
measured performance to gauge progress, and
used performance information as a basis for decision making.
BLM has not fully implemented these steps in managing the FLTFA
program to sell land designated for disposal in its land use plans. To
measure BLM’s success in generating revenue and disposing of land under
FLTFA, actual performance would need to be compared with national
sales goals for FLTFA. Without national goals for making these sales a
priority, it is difficult for BLM to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness
of federal land management as called for in FLTFA through the acquisition
of inholdings and consolidation of public lands.
FLTFA requires BLM to deposit the proceeds into the special FLTFA
account from the sale or exchange of public land identified for disposal
under approved land use plans in effect on the date of its enactment. 21
Other proceeds from land sales and exchanges are typically deposited into
the U.S. Treasury’s general account. Many of BLM’s land use plans have
20 GAO, Executive Guide: Effectively Implementing the Government Performance and
Results Act, GAO/GGD-96-118 (Washington, D.C.: June 1996).
21 Sec. 205(a) of Pub. L. 106-248 (2000), codified at 43 U.S.C. § 2305.
Page 24 GAO-08-196 Federal Land Management