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B-241879 1 (1991-04-26)

handle is hein.gao/gaobacsmm0001 and id is 1 raw text is: G~~o UnitedStham General Accoundng Ofie Washington, D.C. 201548 Office of the General Counsel B-241879 April 26, 1991 Edward Curvey, Director, Contracts and Acquisition Division, Internal Revenue Service, Washington, DC 20224 Dear Mr. Curvey: This responds to your request of October 4, 1990, asking that- we relieve certifying officers at ten Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regional offices of liability for improper payments made for computer services without the proper delegation of procurement authority from the General Services Administration. For the reasons indicated below, relief is granted. According to your submission, the improper payments arce when IRS extended a contract for maintenance of automatic data processing equipment (ADPE). After extending the original contract, which was to expire on September 30, 1989, to December 31, 1989, the IRS needed a second extension and submitted an agency procurement request to the General Services Administration (GSA). Because of the cost of the ADPE maintenance required, authority for the procurement was required from GSA under the Federal Information Resources Management Regulations (FIRMR) at 41 C.F.R. S 201-23.104-3V' (1990). Consequently, IRS sought 'a-specific delegation of qprocurement authority from GSA for a two month period from Jwrnuary 1, 1990 to February 28, 1990 with additional one- month options through April 30, 1990. GSA issued the amended delegation of procurement authority to IRS on January 18, 1990, making no mention of the effective dates. Assuming that the delegation had retroactive effect to January 1, the IRS continued paying for services provided under the contract. In subsequent communications with GSA, the IRS learned that the delegation became effective only on the date issued, and had no retroactive effect. You conclude that the IRS had no authority to contract for ADPE maintenance services from January 1 through January 17, 1990, an 18-day period before GSA's delegation became effective, and for which period the contractor billed your agency for services provided. The impropriety in the situation you describe is that the certifying officers certified payments under a contract that was not authorized because of the lack of the proper delegation of procurement

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