Request for Liquidated Damages

A firm requested that GAO remit all or part of the liquidated damages assessed against it by the Air Force. The Air Force denied the firm's original request that the damages be remitted. Upon the request of GAO, the Air Force again reviewed the matter, and again declined to recommend remission. The GAO authority to remit liquidated damages rests solely in statutory law which provides that upon the recommendation of the head of an agency, the Comptroller General may remit all or part, as he considers just and equitable, of any liquidated damages assessed for delay in performing a contract made by the agency. It has been the consistent GAO view that an agency's favorable recommendation for remission is a prerequisite to any GAO action in matters such as this. Consequently, GAO was unable to grant the firm remission of all or any of the liquidated damages assessed.