State audit finds OMES relying on flawed inventory and leaving office space underused; LOFT urges stronger oversight

A legislative audit released to the Loft Oversight Committee concluded the Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) is meeting minimum statutory reporting obligations but is not exercising the full scope of its authority and relies on flawed, self‑reported inventory data, the auditors said.

Rebecca Hobbs, presenting LOFT’s findings, told the committee that LOFT reviewed office space in Oklahoma City and Tulsa and identified multiple data quality problems in OMES’ real property report, including unmappable addresses, entries showing zero square feet, and some entries recording 200% utilization. “OMES is not exercising its full statutory authority in managing state property and relies on flawed data for decision making and planning,” Hobbs said during the committee hearing.

LOFT said it used a benchmark of 216 square feet per employee (based on a GAO 180‑sq‑ft standard adjusted for common areas) to estimate building capacity and then compared capacity to assigned FTEs and daily badge‑swipe attendance. The audit found OMES‑owned buildings had an average reported utilization of about 34%, agency‑owned buildings in LOFT’s sample averaged roughly 32%, and a sample of privately leased locations averaged about 51% utilization.…