Air Force Request for Reimbursement for Expenditures Incurred Under Interagency Agreement

A certifying officer of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, Department of the Treasury, requested an opinion as to payment of a voucher submitted by the Space and Missile Systems Organization, U.S. Air Force. Under an interagency agreement, the Air Force was seeking reimbursement from fiscal year 1978 funds for expenditures incurred well into fiscal year 1979. The work in question was research, development, and technical support on the Bureau's National Explosives Tagging Program and was performed by Aerospace Corporation under a contract with the Air Force. The Air Force was to pay Aerospace for the work and was to be reimbursed by the Bureau. The interagency agreement indicated the estimated cost of the work by Aerospace and established the period of performance as fiscal year 1978. Another agreement between the agencies was negotiated, continuing the arrangement through fiscal year 1979. Certain funds obligated by the Bureau for work performed in fiscal year 1978 were not disbursed and the Bureau attempted to apply them to work performed during fiscal year 1979. However, all statutory authorities covering interagency agreements and the expenditure of appropriated funds explicitly prohibit carrying them over from one fiscal year to the next. Any obligated funds not needed for work performed in fiscal year 1978 should have been deobligated at the end of the year. The Bureau must adjust its accounts so that funds obligated for a given year are expended only for work performed in that year.