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B-276561 1 (1997-09-30)

handle is hein.gao/gaobablso0001 and id is 1 raw text is: GAO United States General Accounting Office Washington, D.C. 20548 Office of the General Counsel B-276561 September 30, 1997 The Honorable Carolyn B. Maloney House of Representatives Dear Ms. Maloney: Your letter of March 12, 1997, asked for our views about the authority of the Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) to settle certain disputes over royalties owed under federal leases. Specifically, you were concerned whether MMS settlement agreements with Exxon Company U.S.A. and Chevron U.S.A. Inc. in 1993 and 1994 complied with the requirement under 31 U.S.C. § 3711 for Department of Justice approval of agency compromise of claims of the Government exceeding $100,000. Under 31 U.S.C. § 3711(a)(2), agencies have authority to compromise debt claims where the principal amount does not exceed $100,000, or such higher amount as the Attorney General may from time to time prescribe. If the principal amount of the debt exceeds $100,000, only the Department of Justice has the authority to compromise.1 You asked that we determine, based on the two settlement agreements, whether the agreements should have been approved by the Department of Justice. It is our view that the 1993 MMS settlement with Exxon should have been submitted to the Department of Justice for approval to the extent it compromised individual claims over $100,000. The Department of Justice was a party to the 1994 Chevron settlement agreement, which was approved by an Associate Attorney General. 1Several agencies have their own agency-specific or program-specific compromise authority. See, for example, 62 Comp. Gen. 489 (1983) (Economic Development Administration); 28 Comp. Gen. 638 (1949) (insured mortgage claims by predecessor of Department of Housing and Urban Development). 300930

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