[Claim for Payment by Virtue of Assignment of Proceeds]

A financing institution claimed payment of an amount by virtue of an assignment of proceeds which it received from a computer equipment manufacturer under an Army lease contract. It contended that the amount claimed had been paid to a subsequent assignee under the same contract. The claimant contended that its assignment was absolute and had never been released and, therefore, the payments to the other assignee were improper. The equipment manufacturer had leased two separate lots of equipment to the Government under the same contract, one of which was financed by the claimant, and the other was financed by the second assignee. The Army held that the second lot of equipment was leased under a separate transaction, neither included nor contemplated under the initial assignment from the claimant. Therefore, it felt that the equipment manufacturer was under no obligation to obtain a release from the claimant. GAO found that the claimant had no basis for its claim since it had received all payments commensurate with the equipment it financed under the contract; therefore, the claim was found to be without basis.