State Auditor says state should look at building instead of renting

The State Auditor says it’s time for the state to take a harder look at becoming an owner instead of a rentor when it comes to office space for state employees. Auditor Dave Vaudt does an annual review of the leases held by the state. He says in the Des Moines area there’s over 500-thousand square feet of leased space. Vaudt says the state needs to follow a consultant’s report for the Genreal Services Department that recommends studying builiding versus leasing. He says leasing is more costly in the long term. Vaudt says the state needs to know if it can save money by building more office space. He says in the Des Moines area the state spends about seven million dollars annually on leasing office space. He says that’s 35 million dollars over five years that could be invested in a building. He says there needs to be some long-term planning to determine the need for office space. Vaudt says another recommendation is to have the leases for space all handled by the same department. He says General Services handles all the leases in the Des Moines area, but does not handle them outside of Des Moines. He says having all the leases handled by General Services would allow them to co-locate agencies and get a more competative price. The state had 273 leases in 2003 providing office space for nearly 19-thousand employees at a cost of nearly 11-point-three million dollars.