Decision Concerning the Disposition of Two Airplanes Offered for Sale by the General Services Administration on Behalf of the Federal Aviation Agency

This document is in reply to a letter dated March 19, 1964, concerning the disposition of two airplanes offered for sale by the General Services Administration (GSA) on behalf of the Federal Aviation Agency, owner of the airplanes. The Mississippi Civil Defense Agency had a need for one of the airplanes and the Comptroller General of the United States was asked to look into the matter and advise whether procedures followed in this case were proper or whether one of the airplanes should have been donated to the Mississippi Civil Defense Agency under the donable property program. It was GAO's view that the procedures prescribed in the applicable GSA regulations were fully in accord with the spirit an intent of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949. While regulations issued by the Department of Defense permit eligible donees to acquire property that properly could be disposed of under section 201(c), GAO found nothing in the act that required that the donation programs be given precedence over disposal action authorized by section 201(c).