We evaluated the National Park Service's (NPS) methodology for funding the U.S. Park Police's (USPP) law enforcement activities at the Presidio of San Francisco, a national historic landmark. We found the arrangement violated appropriations law and used inefficient billing practices that have led to difficulties in USPP receiving full reimbursement for its services.
Established in 1776, the Presidio served as a military outpost for Spain, followed by Mexico, until the U.S. Army took it over in 1846. In 1994, Congress incorporated the Presidio into the Golden Gate National Recreational Area and made NPS responsible for converting the Presidio from an active military post to a national historic landmark.
In 1996, the Presidio Trust Act created the Presidio Trust, whose purpose is to preserve the Presidio and transform it for public use. The Trust manages the part of the Presidio that holds most of the site's constructed infrastructure and buildings. The Act also required the Trust to enter into a memorandum of agreement with the Secretary of the Interior to have USPP provide law enforcement activities and services at the Presidio.
We evaluated the agreements in place to identify the criterion and methodology used by NPS for funding USPP's services to the Trust and the extent to which USPP is recording and billing the Trust for the costs associated with its activities.
We found that NPS' current business practice for funding USPP services at the Presidio violates appropriations law by using an inappropriate account as a funding mechanism. In addition, USPP tries to gain full compensation from the Trust for all services provided to the Presidio, but its billing is habitually untimely, its billing records are inconsistent, and the accuracy of its reimbursement rates is not regularly verified.
We make six recommendations in this report to improve NPS' administration and management of its reimbursable agreements for Presidio. NPS agreed with three of the recommendations and is working to implement them.