Audit criticises Swiss Embassy renovation in Washington

The renovations of the chancery office building in the United States capital are too expensive, finds the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO). In a report released on Monday, the SFAO stated that it was unhappy with the scale, cost and transparency of the project. The historical building is located at 2900 Cathedral Avenue NW, in Washington, DC. According to the audit report, no substantive analysis of the building's potential was conducted for this project. Furthermore, the change of scale from a maintenance project to a comprehensive renovation project cannot be conclusively explained, says the SFAO. There was also criticism that the new concept is much bigger than the space utilisation programme drawn up by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). Another issue raised was the steep rise in cost which had doubled in three years during the preliminary project phase. Between 2015 and 2018, the project expanded from a CHF7 million (around $7.4 million) undertaking to a...