
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 21, 1991                   TAG: 9103210242
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

U.S. GETTING LOW RETURN FROM PARK CONCESSIONS

Private businesses in Grand Canyon National Park and some of the nation's most famed federal recreation spots earn more than $1.5 billion in revenues annually and return less than 3 percent to the government, congressional investigators say.

The low return to the government compounds the devastating budget crunch in national parks and forests, according to a General Accounting Office investigation obtained by The Associated Press.

The fees paid by the concessionaires were legally negotiated between the private operators and the agencies now in financial difficulty.

One of the agencies, the National Park Service, deferred $1.9 billion worth of maintenance in 1988, the GAO said. The U.S. Forest Service had deferred $449 million worth of maintenance and reconstruction as of October 1989, Congress' investigative arm reported.

Concessionaires run lodges, grocery stores, ski lifts, river trips and other facilities in some of America's best-known U.S.-owned recreation spots.

They operate services such as the Tourmobile that shuttles visitors between national monuments and the federal Mall in Washington, D.C.

They supply outfitters who guide hunters through forests and white-water rafters along rivers. They operate marinas on bodies of water run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

According to 1989 figures complied by the GAO, gross revenues for concessionaires totaled at least $1.5 billion, with $32.2 million in fees returned to the government.

However, the GAO found central record-keeping was so lax that information could be found only on about 60 percent of the concession contracts.

by CNB