Federal Lands: Oversight of Long-Term Concessioners

摘要

Each year millions of people visit federal land for recreation purposes. Manyvisitor accommodations and services on these lands are provided by private entrepreneurs under about 9,000 concessioner agreements entered into with the federal agencies responsible for managing the lands. About 1,500 of these agreements are considered long-term agreements (5 to 50 years) that generally require large investments in facilities. Examples include ski resorts on national forest land, lodges in national parks, and boat marinas on Corps of Engineer lakes. A prime objective and responsibility of the federal agencies' management of concessioner agreements is to ensure that the concessioners offer healthy and safe services. Agreements cite requirements for compliance with the policies of the managing federal agency and applicable state and local government health and safety laws, regulations, and codes. Federal agency managers often rely on state and local agencies to inspect health and safety aspects of concessioner operations. This document summarizes three aspects of the federal agencies' oversight of concessioners operating under long-term agreements that were examined. These aspects are overall evaluation of concessioner performance; concessioner compliance with federal, state, and local health and safety standards; and reasonableness of concessioner prices charged to the public for services. -BKA.