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B-266245 1 (1996-10-24)

handle is hein.gao/gaobacxan0001 and id is 1 raw text is: United States General Accounting Office Washington, D.C. 20548 Office of the General Counsel B-266245 October 24, 1996 Mr. Edwin A. Verburg Deputy Chief Financial Officer Department of the Treasury Dear Mr. Verburg: This responds to your letter of September 15, 1995, requesting relief from liability for Ms. Dianna Palmer and Mr. Bob Hughes of the Brookhaven Service Center of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for an improper payment in the amount of $5,137. As explained below, we are unable to grant relief to Ms. Palmer without additional information from you. Therefore, we are tolling the running of the statute of limitations in this matter to allow you adequate time to submit the necessary information. 31 U.S.C. § 3526(g). The matter of Mr. Hughes's relief is not within our jurisdiction, and we are returning that issue for your disposition. According to your letter, the loss here occurred as a result of the issuance of an erroneous tax refund check. You identify Dianna Palmer as the cognizant certifying officer. This Office is authorized to relieve a certifying officer from liability when we find that (1) the certification was based on official records and the certifying officer did not know, and by reasonable diligence and inquiry could not have discovered, the correct information; or (2) in the context of payments under contracts, the contractual obligation was incurred in good faith, no law specifically prohibited the payment, and the United States received value for the payment. 31 U.S.C. § 3528(b). In a situation such as this, involving an erroneous tax refund, our consideration would most likely focus on section 3528(b)(1) rather than (b)(2). As you can see, such consideration is necessarily fact-based. Your September 15 submission to us did not include a statement of the facts that resulted in the erroneous refund. In order for us to make the determination required by section 3528(b)(1), we will also need to examine copies of the records that Ms. Palmer referred to in certifying this refund. It appears from the record you submitted that the refund at issue here was found to be erroneous on November 29, 1993. Consequently, the statute of limitations for granting relief to Ms. Palmer expires on November 29, 1996. In order to allow you adequate time to compile and submit the 242425

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