Validity of Payments by the Fish and Wildlife Service to Tenants Residing on a Boatyard Acquired by the FWS in Alviso, California

Gao ID: CED-79-95 June 15, 1979

As part of the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge Acquisition, the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) purchased 5 acres of land in Alviso, California. The land acquired was being used as a boat works, and FWS determined that 99 tenants on the land would be eligible for relocation. Estimating that it would cost from $25 to $200 for each boat move, FWS believed that relocation would total about $132,000 to assist the tenants in moving their personal property. Unfortunately, FWS found it necessary to hire commercial moving firms, with the result that the relocation cost FWS $565,624.

GAO found no evidence of excessive payments to boatowners to relocate their boats. Relocating tenants and moving the boats from the boatyard, however, was much more costly and difficult than FWS had anticipated. The extra costs were not considered by FWS in its decision to acquire the boatyard.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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