BNUMBER: B-271894
DATE: July 24, 1997
TITLE: Army Corps of Engineers - Disposition of Fees Received from,
B-271894, July 24, 1997
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Matter of:Army Corps of Engineers - Disposition of Fees Received from
Private Sector Participants in Training Courses
File: B-271894
Date:July 24, 1997
DIGEST
The Army Corps of Engineers provides training on a fee basis to its
employees and employees of other federal agencies and state and local
governments and credits such fees to the Corps Civil Works Revolving
Fund. The Corps also accepts on a reimbursable basis a limited number
of private sector employees in such training courses. The Comptroller
General has not objected to the provision of training to private
sector personnel on a space available basis, even absent statutory
authority to do so, provided that the fees received for the training
are deposited in the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts. Since there
is no statutory authority for the Corps to provide training to private
sector employees, the fees must be deposited in miscellaneous
receipts. 65 Comp. Gen. 666, 673-675 (1986), distinguished in part.
DECISION
A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers disbursing officer has requested our
decision whether the Corps may deposit in its Civil Works Revolving
Fund fees received from private individuals to attend Corps-sponsored
training courses financed from the Revolving Fund, rather than deposit
the fees in the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts. For reasons
discussed below, we conclude that the Corps may not retain the fees
for deposit into the Revolving Fund.
Background
According to the Corps, it operates a training program primarily for
the benefit of Corps employees, which includes courses or subjects
unique to the Corps, and it finances this program almost entirely on a
reimbursable basis from the Revolving Fund. In addition to Corps
employees, employees from other federal agencies and
employees of state and local government agencies attend.
Occasionally, employees of private entities attend on a space
available basis, incidental to the primary training requirements of
government employees. Attendees are charged fees at rates calculated
to recoup estimated costs of the training.
The Corps deposits training fees it receives from federal, state, and
local government attendees into the Fund. However, the Corps is
uncertain whether it has authority to deposit the fees received from
private sector attendees into the Fund, or whether it must deposit
them into the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts.[1]
The disbursing officer notes that under the revolving fund concept,
receipts that are properly for credit to the fund are exempt from the
requirement that they be deposited into miscellaneous receipts. The
Corps's counsel, however, has opined that in this case the fees should
be deposited into miscellaneous receipts since the Corps does not have
specific statutory authority to provide training to individuals from
the private sector and to deposit the fees charged them into the
Corps's Revolving Fund. In support of this position, the counsel
cites our decision 42 Comp. Gen. 673 (1963), and letter
B-241269, February 28, 1991, holding that although an agency may
accept a limited number of private individuals into its training
courses on a fee basis, after adequate provisions have been made for
all government personnel attending, fees received from the private
individuals must be deposited in the Treasury as miscellaneous
receipts.
Analysis
Absent statutory authority to the contrary, all funds received for use
of the United States must be deposited into the Treasury as
miscellaneous receipts. 31 U.S.C. sec. 3302(b).[2] An exception to this
requirement is a revolving fund, created by statute, under which
receipts may be credited directly to the fund and are available,
without further appropriation by Congress, for expenditures to carry
out the purposes of the fund. 69 Comp. Gen. 260, 262 (1990). The
existence of a revolving fund, however, does not automatically signal
that 31 U.S.C. sec. 3302(b) will never apply. Thus, where the statute
establishing the fund does not authorize the crediting of receipts of
a particular type back into the fund, those receipts must be deposited
in the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts, since to credit them to the
fund would constitute an improper augmentation of the fund. See 69
Comp. Gen. 260 (1990): 40 Comp. Gen. 356 (1960): 23 Comp. Gen. 986
(1944): and 20 Comp. Gen. 280 (1940).
The fund in this case, the Corps of Engineers Civil Works Revolving
Fund, is established by 33 U.S.C. sec. 576, and provides in pertinent
part as follows:
"There is established a revolving fund, to be available without
fiscal year limitation, for expenses necessary for the
maintenance and operation of the plant and equipment of the Corps
of Engineers used in civil works functions, including acquisition
of plant and equipment, maintenance, repair, and purchase,
operation, and maintenance of not to exceed four aircraft at any
one time, temporary financing of services finally chargeable to
appropriations for civil works functions, and the furnishing of
facilities and services for military functions of the Department
of the Army and other Government agencies and private persons, as
authorized by law. . . . The fund shall be credited with
reimbursements or advances for the cost of equipment, facilities,
and services furnished, at rates which shall include charges for
overhead and related expenses, depreciation of plant and
equipment, and accrued leave . . ."
The Government Employees Training Act, 5 U.S.C. Chapter 41 authorized
the Corps to provide training to its own employees and employees of
other federal agencies. Similarly, the Corps is authorized to
provide such training to state and local government employees by 42
U.S.C. sec. 4742. These statutes provide specific authority for
reimbursement to the agency providing the training for federal agency
and state or local government personnel. 5 U.S.C. sec. 4104, and 42
U.S.C. sec. 4742(b), respectively. Thus, providing the training to these
employees falls within the statutory language creating the Fund, as
"the furnishing of facilities and services for . . . other Government
agencies . . . as authorized by law." Therefore, the Fund may be
properly credited with the reimbursements received for these
employees.
As to the private sector personnel, no statutory provision
specifically authorizes the Corps to train them. In our prior
decisions on the reimbursement of government
agencies for training expenses, we have not objected to an agency's
decision to provide training to nongovernmental employees. 42 Comp.
Gen. 673; B-241269, February 28, 1991. The fact that we did not
object, however, should not be read to imply that we determined that
the agencies' furnishing of such training was "authorized by law," as
that phrase is used in the statute, 33 U.S.C. sec. 576, creating the
Corps Civil Works Revolving Fund. Rather, in both cases, we merely
accommodated the desires of the agencies involved to provide training
to private individuals once the agencies had determined that their own
training needs had been met. In both cases, in fact, we declined to
allow the agencies to categorize the training fees they received as
anything other than miscellaneous receipts.
Our decision in 65 Comp. Gen. 666 is not to the contrary. In that
case, we necessarily determined that the agency's provision of
training was authorized by law. The case involved an agreement
between a Job Corps Center and a state education office, pursuant to
which state-sponsored students were allowed to participate in a Job
Corps training program. We held that the agreements in question were
"consistent with the purpose of the Job Corps program, and authority
to enter [into] them may be inferred from other provisions covering
the program." 65 Comp. Gen. at 673. Because the provision of Job
Corps training to the students was thus an authorized activity and
because the Job Corps was authorized to credit income and
reimbursements generated under the program to its account, the Job
Corps could deposit reimbursements for training the state-sponsored
student into its account without violating the prohibition against
augmenting the agency's funds.
We can find no similar basis for permitting the Army Corps of
Engineers to retain private training reimbursements at issue in this
case. Although we have no objection to the Corps continuing to
provide such training on a space available basis, there is simply no
statutory authority which would permit the inference that the training
in question is "authorized by law". Absent such an inference, the
reimbursement must be deposited in the Treasury as miscellaneous
receipts.
Comptroller General
of the United States
1. The disbursing officer is currently holding $1,455 in training fees
received from private companies pending our decision.
2. Section 3302(b) provides in pertinent part that ". . . an official
or agent of the Government receiving money for the Government from any
source shall deposit the money in the Treasury as soon as practicable
without deduction for any charge or claim." This language has long
been held to mean deposit into the general fund of the Treasury as
miscellaneous receipts. See e.g., 10 Comp. Gen. 382, 383 (1931); and
69 Comp. Gen. 260, 261 (1990).