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B-198371 1 (1980-05-22)

handle is hein.gao/gaobadigg0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 0 LF R 13 70 THE COMPTROLLER GENE AL DECISION OF THE UNITED STATES WASHINGTON, D. C. 20548 FILE: B-19837 MATTER OF: DIGEST: DATE: May 22, 1980 Bureau of Land Management Oil and Gas Filing Fee Refunds Bureau of Land Management Certifying Officer may not properly certify vouchers which will result in a percentage of erroneous payments in connection with the Bureau's $7,000,000 refund of oil and gas leasing filing fees. As proposed, some refunds would go to applicants whose checks were dishonored, because checks cannot be matched with applications. GAO has no authority to authorize erroneous payments in advance. To prevent erroneous payments, Bureau should require applicants to submit claims for refunds. When claimant submits evidence of his entitlement, Bureau may settle the claim. An authorized Certifying Officer, Bureau of Land Management, United States Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C., has asked for an advance decision concerning the payment of refunds of filing fees which may result in erroneous payments. The Bureau is in the process of refunding a total of $7,000,000 in oil lease application filing fees to some 70,000 applicants. As a consequence of deficiencies in the Bureau's records, it is known that a small percentage of these refunds will result in erroneous payments and the certifying officer asks whether he will be personally liable for these pay- ments if he certifies the vouchers. We conclude that he would be liable. We recommend instead that these refunds be made under the Bureau's claims settlement authority, in order to avoid any erroneous payments. Under the d e qzAt S, as amended, the Burea o eratedhi.multaneous Oil and Gas Leasing system. 0 U.S.C. 22 1- This is a system of leasing Federal lands to the public through a non-competitive bidding process. The Bureau's State Offices periodically 12 3O7 60 / - _

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