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B-302811 1 (2004-07-12)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptapqp0001 and id is 1 raw text is: G A 0 Comptroller General SIntegrity Reliability of the United States ~ccountabthty Inert Rea iy United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548 B-302811 July 12, 2004 The Honorable James Oberstar Ranking Minority Member Committee on Transportation And Infrastructure House of Representatives The Honorable Eleanor Holmes Norton Ranking Minority Member Subcommittee on Public Buildings, Economic Development and Emergency Management Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure House of Representatives Subject: General Services Administration and Real Estate Brokers' Commissions This responds to your joint letter of March 23, 2004, requesting our opinion regarding some aspects of the General Services Administration's (GSA) proposed National Brokers Contract. In discussions with your staff, we agreed to address several questions centering on the nature of the services that GSA will obtain under the proposed National Brokers Contract and the payment for those services. We also agreed to explain the difference between GSA's proposed National Brokers Contract, which we addressed in a 2003 decision, B-291947, Aug. 7, 2003, and a Small Business Administration (SBA) contract related to its Preferred Lenders Program, which we addressed in a 2004 decision, B-300248, Jan. 15, 2004. We are of the view that the broker services that GSA will acquire under the National Brokers Contract are services that brokers commonly offer in commercial leasing transactions. We found that for commercial leases, while it is common practice for the parties to negotiate the particular mix of services the broker will provide, the services that GSA will acquire are among those services that brokers commonly offer. We also found that while brokers may negotiate the method and amount of payment, which could be through a commission or fee, the services that GSA will acquire under the National Brokers Contract are commonly covered by landlords' commissions. As we explain in more detail below, the legal nature of the proposed GSA brokers contract differs from that of SBA's contract. Under the proposed brokers contract, brokers will agree to provide services at no cost to GSA. B-291947, Aug. 7, 2003. As a

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