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B-197146 1 (1981-10-27)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabkfv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES WASHINGTON D.C. 20548 B-197146 October 27, 1981 The Honorable Jack Brooks, Chairman, Committee on Government Operations House of Representatives Dear Mr. Chairman: This responds to your letter of August 12, 1981, requesting our comments on H.R. 4333, 97th Congress, the proposed Collection Services Procurement Act of 1981. * This bill, introduced by Representative English, would amend the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act to authorize Federal agencies to contract for certain debt collection services. A recent amendment to the Federal Claims Collection Standards (4 C.F.R. §102.5, added at 46 Fed. Reg. 22353) provides for essentially the same contracts as H.R. 4333. Representative English introduced his bill because he questions the legal basis for the change in the Claims Collection Standards. See Congressional Record for July 30, 1981, at H5419-5420. As indicated in our letter of today to Representative English (copy enclosed), we do not share his reservations concerning the legality of the revised Claims Collection Standards. Therefore, we do not believe that enactment of H.R. 4333 is necessary. How- ever, in the event that the Committee gives favorable consideration to H.R. 4333, we would suggest certain changes. We believe that in view of the subject matter of the legisla- tion, it should amend the Federal Claims Collection Act, 31 U.S.C. S591 et. seq., rather than the Federal Property Act. Along the same lines, we suggest that any necessary implementing regulations should be prescribed jointly by the Attorney General and the Comp- troller General (as under the Claims Collection Act), rather than by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Of course, the Office of Management and Budget would be consulted as appro- priate. In our view, the legislation should not require that any contract automatically subject the contractor to the Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C. §552a. The Privacy Act does not apply generally to Government contracts. Rather, subsection 552a(m) requires appli- cation of the Act to contractors only when the contract provides--

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