The Administrator of General Services is authorized to make such contracts and provisions as he may deem for the interest of the Government, for the preservation, sale, or collection of any property, or the proceeds thereof, which may have been wrecked, abandoned, or become derelict, being within the jurisdiction of the United States, and which ought to come to the United States, and in such contracts to allow such compensation to any person giving information thereof, or who shall actually preserve, collect, surrender, or pay over the same, as the Administrator of General Services may deem just and reasonable. No costs or claim shall, however, become chargeable to the United States in so obtaining, preserving, collecting, receiving, or making available property, debts, dues, or interests, which shall not be paid from such moneys as shall be realized and received from the property so collected, under each specific agreement.
(R.S. §3755; Pub. L. 89–30, §4, June 2, 1965, 79 Stat. 119.)
The clause in this section, as originally enacted, making it applicable also to “or of any moneys, dues, and other interests lately in the possession of or due to the so-called Confederate States, or their agents, and now belonging to the United States, which are now withheld or retained by any person, corporation or municipality whatever, and which ought to have come into the possession and custody of, or been collected or received by, the United States;” was omitted.
R.S. §3755 derived from Res. June 21, 1870, No. 75, 16 Stat. 380.
1965—Pub. L. 89–30 substituted “Administrator of General Services” for “Secretary of the Treasury”.