Skip to main content

National Park Service: Policies and Practices for Determining Concessioners' Building Use Fees

T-RCED-92-66 Published: May 21, 1992. Publicly Released: May 21, 1992.
Jump To:
Skip to Highlights

Highlights

GAO discussed the fees that National Park Service (NPS) concessioners pay for using federally owned facilities. GAO noted that: (1) NPS does not maintain data on concession agreements that include the use of federally owned facilities; (2) in 1990, there were about 150 agreements involving concessioners' use of about 1,400 federally owned facilities; (3) those concessioners' gross revenues ranged from $6,300 to $83 million, and fees paid totalled about $1.2 million; (4) NPS receives some nonfee compensation from concessioners, but the value of that compensation is unknown; (5) NPS does not have specific building use fee policies, except for its requirement that fees be determined in accordance with acceptable industry practices; (6) NPS field officials generally did not obtain independent appraisals of the fair value return of concessions; (7) NPS does not have adequate guidance on the use of set-aside accounts, which represent funds that concessioners set aside to maintain the federally owned facilities they use; and (8) NPS could not determine whether it was receiving a fair return for concessioners' use of federally owned facilities.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Interior With regard to building use fees, the Secretary of the Interior should direct the Director, NPS, to develop complete and centralized data on: (1) the number of concession agreements that involve the use of federally owned facilities; (2) the number of facilities used by concessioners; (3) the building use fee paid by the concessioner; and (4) the value of nonfee compensation from either set-aside accounts or contractual agreements.
Closed – Implemented
NPS has revised its database to include information on both government-owned and concessioner-owned buildings. The data include ownership, building function, insurance replacement value, and amount of building use fee.
Department of the Interior The Secretary of the Interior should direct the Director, NPS, to develop specific policies, methodologies, and guidelines on how to: (1) best determine building use fees; and (2) establish, administer, and track set-aside accounts, as well as other contractual agreements for repairs, maintenance, and improvements to federally owned facilities used by concessioners.
Closed – Implemented
A new method for calculating building use fees has been developed and is being tested on some actual structures. The new methodology has been incorporated into a revised chapter of NPS-48 which is NPS' guidance on concessionaire operations.

Full Report

Office of Public Affairs

Topics

Concessions contractsData integrityFair market valueFederal facilitiesFeesLand managementLand use agreementsNational parksNational recreation areasPublic lands