GSA offered tax breaks — for a price

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

It was a curious offer to contractors from a government agency: We’ll give you a tax deduction for making federal buildings more energy-efficient if you qualify and if you’ll write us a check for 19 percent of the tax break’s value.

The General Services Administration, already under a cloud for a lavish Las Vegas employee conference, says that after seven months, it dropped its demand for the giveback requirement because there were no takers.

But the policy is raising new questions about whether GSA was trying to raise money for its own budget without congressional authorization, whether that effort was legal and whether other agencies have tried anything similar.

“It was brought to our attention that certain people at agencies were asking for what looked like kickbacks in order to get allocations of a tax deduction,” Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee’s oversight panel, said Thursday. “This is a major concern, and I’m certainly going to investigate this.”

GSA officials said the practice was legal and a way for them to raise money to make additional federal buildings more energy-efficient. GSA manages 9,600 federally owned or leased buildings, more than any other landlord, though some federal properties are owned by the Defense Department or other agencies.