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B-185232 1 (1976-04-05)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaddqg0001 and id is 1 raw text is: vo . THE COMPTROLLER GENERAL DECISION . OF THE UNITED STATES WAS H IN GTO N. D.C. 2054B FILE: DATE: APR 5 176t B-185232 \ - MATTER OF: Claim of Peoples Bank and Trust Company DIGEST: Claim by bank for charges owed by Government contractor may not be paid by Government since bank is in position of subcontractor and has no privity of contract with Govern- ment. GAO will only exercise equitable authority where specifically granted by statute. There is no such author- ity applicable here. The Acting Associate Director, Administration, National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior, has requested our opinion as to whether a claim by Peoples Bank and Trust Company, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, may be certified and processed for payment. We will treat this request as a submission from the head of the agency. The record shows that the claimant provided banking services for a National Park Service concessioner, Park Reservation System, as the result of which the bank incurred sizable losses, principally the result of credit card charge services associated with ineligible, duplicate, cancelled and otherwise bad reservation slips returned to the bank by the card service organizations. The National Park Service contract with Park Reservation System was terminated and the assets of the concessioner subsequently were paid into the Registry of the United States District Court for the Central District of California incident to an action filed in that court by the United States entitled United States v. Park Reservation System, et al., Civil No. 74-2785-R. The litigation was terminated by a compromise settlement dated February 4, 1975. Because Park Reservation System was no longer viable, the bank was unable to obtain restitution on the charge slips from the concessioner. The National Park Service has paid the claimant the sum of $8,191.72 for various camping fee refunds. Payment is now requested of the $3,954.63 balance of the claim comprised of concessioner surcharge, duplicate payments and miscellaneous related charges. As a general rule, the relationship of bank and depositor is hat of debtor and creditor, founded upon contract. Bank of M4arin *. England, 385 U.S. 99, 101 (1966); 9 C.J.S. Banks and Banking, section 267(b). It appears from the record that whatever agreement the claimant may have had for the provision of banking services was solely with Park Reservation System, a Government contractor; it does not appear that the United States was a party to any such dj-

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