B-308822, National Archives and Records Administration--Damage to Revolving Fund Records Caused by Building Failure, May 2, 2007

B-308822 May 02, 2007 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights The Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, as amended, governs the interagency occupancy agreement between the General Services Administration (GSA) and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for the Washington National Records Center building. Consistent with the Act and our past decisions involving GSA and the Federal Buildings Fund, we find that the interdepartmental waiver rule applies and GSA is not required to reimburse NARA for property damage. 57 Comp. Gen. 130 (1977). Operating reserves in NARA's records center revolving fund are available to cover the costs of repairing water damage to records that NARA stores for its federal agency customers caused by a building failure. View Decision B-308822, National Archives and Records Administration--Damage to Revolving Fund Records Caused by Building Failure, May 2, 2007 Decision Matter of: National Archives and Records Administration—Damage to Revolving Fund Records Caused by Building Failure File: B-308822 Date: May 2, 2007 DIGEST The Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, as amended, governs the interagency occupancy agreement between the General Services Administration (GSA) and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for the Washington National Records Center building. Consistent with the Act and our past decisions involving GSA and the Federal Buildings Fund, we find that the interdepartmental waiver rule applies and GSA is not required to reimburse NARA for property damage. 57 Comp. Gen. 130 (1977). Operating reserves in NARA's records center revolving fund are available to cover the costs of repairing water damage to records that NARA stores for its federal agency customers caused by a building failure. DECISION The General Counsel of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has requested an advance decision under 31 U.S.C. sect. 3529 on whether the General Services Administration (GSA) should bear the cost of repairing damage caused by a GSA building failure to records and property maintained by the NARA Federal Records Center Program. Letter from Gary M. Stern, General Counsel, NARA, to Susan Poling, Managing Associate General Counsel, GAO, Jan. 3, 2007 (Stern Letter). As we explain below, the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, as amended, governs the interagency occupancy agreement between GSA and NARA for the WashingtonNationalRecordsCenter building. Consistent with the Act and our past decisions involving GSA and the Federal Buildings Fund, we find that the interdepartmental waiver rule applies and GSA is not required to reimburse NARA for property damage. Operating reserves in NARA's records center revolving fund are available to cover the costs of repairing water damage to records that the NARA Federal Records Center Program stores for its federal agency customers in a GSA-owned building. Our practice when rendering decisions is to obtain the views of the relevant federal agency to establish a factual record and to elicit the agency's legal position on the matter. GAO, Procedures and Practices for Legal Decisions and Opinions, GAO-06-1064SP (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 2006), available at www.gao.gov/legal/d061064sp-web.pdf. In this case, we received NARA's legal position in its request letter. See Stern Letter. We also solicited GSA's legal position on whether it should bear the cost of repairing the damages in question. Letter from Thomas H. Armstrong, Assistant General Counsel for Appropriations Law, GAO, to Lennard S. Loewentritt, Acting General Counsel, GSA, Jan. 16, 2007. We received GSA's response on February 16, 2007. Letter from Sharon A. Roach, Regional Counsel, GSA, to Pedro E. Briones, Senior Staff Attorney, GAO, Feb. 16, 2007 (Roach Letter). We obtained further factual information from NARA in response to facts raised in GSA's letter. Telephone Conversation between Jeffrey Landou, Assistant General Counsel, GSA; Pedro E. Briones, Senior Staff Attorney and Thomas H. Armstrong, Assistant General Counsel, GAO, Mar. 8, 2007 (Landou Teleconference). BACKGROUND NARA operates federal records centers across the country that house temporary and pre-archival records belonging to other federal agencies. Stern Letter. NARA records centers provide storage services to federal agencies on a standard price, reimbursable basis. Id.Records center operations are financed through the –Records Center Revolving Fund— established by Congress to cover expenses and necessary equipment without the need for further appropriations. Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act, 2000, Pub. L. No. 106-58, title IV, 113 Stat. 430, 460--61 (Sept. 29, 1999). See also B-302962, June 10, 2005 (discussing NARA's Records Center Program and the legislative history of the Records Center Revolving Fund).