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B-203115 1 (1981-05-08)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabkap0001 and id is 1 raw text is: COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES WASHINGTON 0,C. 2054 B-203115 May 8, 1981 C. The Honorable Jack Brooks, Chairman Committee on Government Operations House of Representatives Dear Mr. Chairman: We understand that H.R. 1020, a bill to repeal 44 U.S.C. § 3702, has been referred to your committee. We write to express our spport for enactment of. t-e--eg-t h4/?. t. The provision in question,, 44 U.S.C. § 3702, was originally enacted in 1870 and requires prior written approval before an advertisement or notice may be placed in a newspaper by an executive branch agency. It further provides that a bill from a newspaper may not be paid unless accompanied by a copy of the written authorization. Thus, when we receive a claim by a newspaper which has published an advertisement ordered in viola- tion of the statute, we are required to disallow the claim, even though.the newspaper acted in good faith and the Government re- ceived the benefits of the publication. In recent years we have been referring these claims to the Congress for the enactment of legislation under the Meritorious Claims Act.~- As you may know, the General Accounting Office~has supported repeal of 44 U.S.C. S 3702 for a number of years. It is our view that normal procurement procedures are adequate to safeguard the Government's interests.' We first recommended repeal in a letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, B-181337, November 25, 1974. That letter, a copy of which is enclosed, fully states the basis for our recommendation. We renewed our recommendation in a 1978 letter to the Chairman of the Joint Com- mittee on Printing, B-114829, October 2, 1978 (pages 5 and 6). We are also enclosing a copy of that letter. _Our prior letters also recommended repeal of a related provisiGn, 44 U.S.C. § 3703, concerning rates of payment for advertisements.) For the reasons stated in our 1974 and 1978 letters, _we would recommend amending H.R. 1020 to repeal 44 U.S.C. S 3703 as well: In the alternativerif the committee feels that there are policy reasons which would'suggest retaining some measure of con- trol over the placing of advertisements in newspapers by Govern- ment agencies, you may wish to consider amending 44 U.S.C. § 3702 to permit payment upon ratification by the agency head. This o/Y

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