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B-200519 1 (1980-11-28)

handle is hein.gao/gaobadisp0001 and id is 1 raw text is: DECISION FILE: B-200519 DATENovember 28, 1980 MATTER OF: Agency for International Development - vLAailability of Deobligated No-Year Funds DIGEST: No-year funds appropriated by the Foreign Assistance and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 1974, for relief assistance to drought-stricken nations of Africa remain available until expended and, after being deobligated, may be reobligated for purposes within the scope of the appropriation so long as disbursements have been made from the appropriation during the last two fiscal years. No specific statutory authority is required and the congressional decision not to continue to provide the Agency for International Development with deobligation-reobligation authority only affects funds appropriated with fiscal year time restrictions. The General Counsel of the Agency for International Development (AID) has asked our opinion on whether certain no-year funds appropriated in 1974 for relief assistance to drought-stricken nations of Africa may be reobligated despite the absence of deobligation-reobligation authority for fiscal year 1980 foreign assistance funds. Title IV of the Foreign Assistance and Related Appropriations Act, 1974 (Pub. L. No. 93-240, 87 Stat. 1049) appropriated funds for disaster relief assistance for the Sahel region in Africa. The Second Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1974 (Pub. L. No. 93-305, 88 Stat. 195) amended Title IV by broadening the coverage to include all drought- stricken nations of Africa rather than only those in the Sahel region, and by adding the words to remain available until expended, thus making these funds no-year funds. AID deobligated $705,000 of this appropriation from two projects in Chad which could not be continued because of the civil war in that country. AID now wishes to reobligate these funds for disaster-related activities in the Sahel. AID's question arises because prior to 1979, it also received fiscal year (one year) appropriations with specific authority to reobligate, rather than return to the Treasury, obligated funds which were subsequently deobligated in the new fiscal year. Beginning with fiscal year 1979, the Congress decided not to include this deob-reob authority ia AID's appropriation acts. AID asks whether this omission has any effect on its authority to reobligate its no-year funds. THE COMPTROLLEIR GENERAL (i71 OF THE UNITED STATES VV0 WASHINGTON., O C. 20548