24 



Mrs. Chenoweth. When was that signed? Under what statutory- 

 authority was that MOU signed, and does this committee have a 

 copy of that MOU? 



Mr. Frankel. I don't know what the statutory authority was, but 

 I would be delighted to give it to you. 



Mrs. Chenoweth. I don't think there is any, and I would like to 

 be corrected by the agencies because I honestly don't think there 

 is any authority. 



Mr. Frankel. It was signed by various people in April and May 

 of 1995. 



Mrs. Chenoweth. So if there is no authority, is there really an 

 agreement? 



Mr. Frankel, I don't know the answer to that. 



Mrs. Chenoweth. Let me ask you, was there public involvement 

 in the signing of this MOU? Can you tell us what kind of public 

 involvement? 



Mr. Frankel. I don't believe there was, ma'am. 



Mrs. Chenoweth. Was there any public notification? 



Mr. Frankel. No. 



Mrs. Chenoweth. Did you meet with representatives of any con- 

 cession groups when you entered into this MOU? 



Mr. Frankel. No, I don't think so. I think what this was was an 

 agreement between agencies on how to attempt to begin to work 

 together that would result in the types of things that you are talk- 

 ing about later. This is just, "Well, let us start talking together and 

 find out where we have our differences and where we agree", and 

 that is all it was. 



Mrs. Chenoweth. Well, but one of the basic elements of your 

 interdepartmental agreement states that the concession contract 

 shall be of the shortest practicable length. So that does impact on 

 concessioners, and they had absolutely no input. There was no pub- 

 lic involvement, and this body was not involved in an MOU that 

 I question has any authority at all if we didn't give it to you. 



I do want to ask, I think Mr. Kennedy would feel terribly ne- 

 glected if I didn't ask him a question. Mr. Chairman, with your in- 

 dulgence, I do have a question. In recent years, the National Park 

 Service has initiated a policy of retaining all or substantial portions 

 of concession franchise fees without submitting such funds to the 

 Treasury. 



But in 1994, the National Park Service deposited over $10 mil- 

 lion in concession funds into park accounts which are not subject 

 to appropriation. And both the GAO and the Interior Inspector 

 General have reviewed National Park Service handling of these ac- 

 counts and found them inadequate. 



Further, the committee has received communication from several 

 park concessioners that they have been contacted by park super- 

 intendents who have directed them to deposit franchise fees into 

 these park accounts in lieu of depositing them into the Treasury as 

 required in their contracts. It is unknown how many millions of 

 dollars may have been diverted from the Treasury by park super- 

 intendents. 



Mr. Kennedy, are you familiar with section 1341 of title 31 which 

 prohibits any employee of the United States from making an obli- 



