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Claim To Recover Monies Deducted on the Basis of Prompt-Payment Discount Provision

B-204204,B-204204.2 Apr 05, 1982
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Highlights

A firm asked GAO to review prompt-payment discounts taken by the Government on 24 bills submitted for payment for freight transportation. The firm alleged that the Government improperly took a prompt-payment discount on these vouchers. These claims were filed directly with GAO, rather than with either the paying agencies involved or the General Services Administration (GSA). GAO asked GSA to review the claims, and GSA asserted that a 3-year statute of limitation was applicable to the claims. Therefore, at least one of the claims was time barred. GSA found those claims filed prior to the expiration of the statute of limitations without merit. Using the date of the receipt, GSA found that all of the discounts were properly taken. GSA also viewed the firm's acceptance of the discounted payments over an extended period of time as a pattern of conduct which created an estoppel. GAO agreed with GSA that one claim was time barred and, therefore, could not be considered. The tender for the other vouchers stated that the vouchers had to be paid within 15 days of the date of the voucher for the discount to apply. As the payments were not made within this timeframe, the discount was improperly taken on these bills. Since the governing statute provides for a statute of limitations, the theory of estoppel was inapplicable to these claims. Accordingly, GSA should take settlement action on the claims.

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