[Request for Opinion on GSA Records Storage Charges Practice]

The Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requested an opinion on the propriety of the General Services Administration's (GSA) practice of assessing Standard Level User Charges (SLUC) for storage of certain IRS records. Although IRS agreed to continue payment for servicing costs for early transfer records, it refused to reimburse GSA for storage costs on the basis that the storage of noncurrent records by GSA was a statutory function for which it receives appropriations. GSA contended that the storage of current agency records is not a statutory function of GSA and that it is not precluded by the decisions of GAO from recovering its actual cost incurred. IRS contended only that the records in question were noncurrent according to GSA guidelines. Once GSA indicated that it would no longer store the records without being reimbursed SLUC, IRS was obligated to make the reimbursements if it desired to continue to store records in Federal Records Centers (FRC). GSA regulations require that, for records to be eligible for transfer to a FRC, they not be needed to carry out current agency operations. Under the standards established by GSA, it is within its discretion to permit or not permit current records to be stored in a FRC. Based on this distinction, IRS argued that its records were required to be stored by GSA free of charge since they were not current for IRS purposes. GSA, on the other hand, argued that using the same criteria, the records were current. It pointed out that the records should be referred to only occasionally in the normal course of events. GAO saw no reason why the storage of current IRS records should not be viewed as a constructive assignment of space to the IRS for which it became liable for the payment of SLUC. Even if the storage of current IRS records were governed by the Economy Act, it is clear that reimbursement of SLUC was recoverable by the performing agency as part of the actual cost recovery requirement imposed by the Economy Act. Thus, SLUC attributable to space used were required to be reimbursed. GAO found that failure to spell out what costs would be reimbursed in the interagency agreement would not prevent recovery of the performing agency's actual costs. Accordingly, IRS was required to reimburse GSA for SLUC.