Sources and Amounts of Special Account Funds Throughout the Park Service

Park Service headquarters officials identified eight special accounts and provided us financial data for these accounts. The total value of these accounts was about $45 million in fiscal year 1994. Of the eight accounts, five are authorized to recover the costs of particular in-park activities. The other three accounts are not designed to recover costs, but provide park units with cash and noncash benefits to be used for a variety of purposes within the parks. In fiscal year 1994, according to data provided by the Park Service, the cost-recovery accounts totaled $6.5 million; the noncost-recovery accounts were valued at $38.5 million. Information on Funds in Special Accounts at 27 Park Units

To provide a perspective on the amount of special account funds available at individual park units, we gathered information on a judgmental sample of 27 park units that included 20 of the largest parks in the national park system. These park units did not receive any income from leasing historic properties or have any damaged resources that were subject to reimbursement. These cost-recovery accounts were for living history demonstrations, special-use permits, and mess operations. Noncost-Recovery Accounts—Donations, Cooperating Associations, and Concessioners

In fiscal year 1994, the National Park Service valued the amount of funds in noncost-recovery accounts at $38.5 million. We found that the expenditures from the concessioners’ special accounts at these park units were made for authorized purposes.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the National Park Service's (NPS) special account funds, focusing on: (1) the sources and amounts of these funds; and (2) whether the expenditures of these funds are consistent with intended purposes.

What GAO Found

GAO found that: (1) the value of the eight NPS accounts reviewed totalled $45 million; (2) five of these accounts recovered the costs associated with in-park activities and the other three provided cash and noncash benefits; (3) in 1994, cost-recovery accounts totalled $6.5 million and non-cost-recovery accounts totalled $38.5 million; (4) cost-recovery accounts are funded through living history demonstrations, reimbursements from mess operations, historical property leases, payments for park damages, and special-use fees for funding; (5) non-cost-recovery accounts receive funding from various donations and cooperating associations that operate bookstores on park premises; (6) the associations provide a variety of in-park services related to park themes and construct facilities that support concession services; (7) significant discrepancies exist between NPS and individual park financial data on the amount of funds in special accounts established by concessioners; (8) the actual amount of money in the special fund accounts is several million dollars higher than reported by NPS; (9) NPS attributes some of these discrepancies to inaccurate tracking of concessioners' accounts; and (10) all but one of the expenditures from the special fund accounts were for authorized purposes.