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).