About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

RED-75-362 1 (1975-05-01)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaaatd0001 and id is 1 raw text is: t* COMPTROOLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATESf-j 7y WASHINGTON. D.C. 2OW4 B- 164844 97I 75 The Honorable Joseph J. Maraziti 117 Cornelia Street Boonton, New Jersey 07005 AVALARL, Dear Mr. Maraziti: This is in reply to your request that we examine into the propriety of allegations made about the land acquisition practices of the Corps of Engineers at the Tocks Island Lake project in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. As agreed with your office, we selected for review 17 of the cases you forwarded as examples of alleged land acquisition abuses. We reviewed Corps records and interviewed officials of the Corps' district and project offices and of the U.S. attorney's office, Newark, New Jersey. We also interviewed some of the individuals who were alleged to have made the complaints against the Corps. As agreed with your office, we did not evaluate or question the appraisal price for individual tracts of land. We did, however, review the appraisals to determine whether they were being developed consistent witb the Corps' prescribed policies and procedures. We found that many of the cases reviewed involved transactions which occurred before 1971. Since 1971 improvements in land acquisi- tion practices have been made. For instance, the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970 (Public Law 91-646), enacled January 2, 1971, prescribed uniform and equitable land acquisition policies for Federal and federally assisted programs. The law required the Government to initially offer property owners the approved appraisal value rather than some lesser amount as had been practiced before January 1971. The Corps, under its current land acquisition policy, begins negotiations with the property owner at the approved appraised value. We briefed your office on October !7, 1974, and advised that we found no evidence which would substantiate the alleged complaints. We advised also that we had ipterviewed three of the alleged complainants and that these individuals had told us that they either did not recall making the complaint or had definitely not made the complaint. In fact, RED-75-362

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most