Restoration of Forfeited Annual Leave

An employee of the Central Intelligence Agency claimed restoration of previously scheduled annual leave that he forfeited due to exigencies of public business. On several occasions his requests for annual leave had been approved by his supervisor, but his leave was canceled because he was needed in his work involving continuing Congressional investigations. When the employee made an application for restoration of his forfeited leave, he was informed that the exigency determination had not been made in writing by the proper agency official in advance of the cancellation of leave. GAO determined that it was not necessary for the employee to show that the proper official would have determined that there was a public exigency. If there is no exigency, the agency has no discretion concerning whether or not to schedule the leave. Thus, even where there is no evidence in the record that the official would have made an exigency determination had the matter been presented to him, failure to submit the matter must be considered an administrative error. Employees must show that they submitted a formal and timely request for leave in order to satisfy the congressional intention that would authorize restoration of leave lost through no fault of the employee. Since the employee in this case did submit such a request which was approved by his supervisor, he is entitled to restoration of the forfeited leave.