Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Bureau of Reclamation's land-use agreements with Scottsdale, Arizona, to determine whether the: (1) terms and conditions of the agreements are consistent with federal law; (2) activities approved under the agreements are consistent with applicable agency policies and guidance; and (3) potential exists for the Bureau to enter into similar agreements elsewhere.
GAO found that: (1) although the Bureau of Reclamation must approve development plans, it does not have adequate monitoring and oversight policies and procedures to ensure that lessees developed and operated facilities in accordance with the agreements; (2) in two separate agreements, transferring about 760 acres of land to Scottsdale for recreational development, local Bureau officials agreed to the long-term use of those lands with no compensation to the federal government, approved several for-profit activities, approved a reservation policy granting priority access to a select group of facility users, and allowed private operators to set public-use fees without verifying the data used to set such fees; (3) Bureau instructions governing land-use agreements do not address the issue of public access or public-use fees; (4) Scottsdale did not compensate the Bureau for the use of its lands because local Bureau officials decided that no fee compensation was warranted under the agreements, since leasing the lands supported the Bureau's goal of providing its land for recreation; and (5) the Bureau had authority to enter into agreements to promote the development of land in the public interest for recreation, but typically negotiated such agreements at the regional or local level and did not maintain centralized information, making it difficult to determine whether similar agreements were pending.
