Property Services Agency
Its role was to "provide, manage, maintain, and furnish the property used by the government, including defence establishments, offices, courts, research laboratories, training centres and land".The agency had the job of providing, equipping and maintaining a wide range of buildings and installations for government departments, and the armed services, as well as other bodies.For the first decade of its existence the PSA was a centralised organisation which controlled all building and estates management works for government departments and the armed services.[5] Evidence of corruption in PSA District Works Offices came to light in the early 1980s, and as a result the government appointed Sir Geoffrey Wardale to carry out an inquiry.[6] These problems, combined with the government's intention to pursue a programme of privatisation of public organisations, led in 1988 to the PSA being put on a commercial footing, and obliged to bid for project work in open competition with the private construction industry.The headquarters organisation also had direct control of flagship construction projects such as the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London.