Payment of Actual Travel Expenses Under Unusual Circumstances

A request was made for a decision on payment of military and civilian travel allowances on an actual expense basis under unusual duty assignments. Specifically, the following questions were asked: (1) where travel on temporary duty to a place not designated as a high cost geographical area but where the prescribed per diem on the lodging plus basis is inadequate due to the lack of lower priced accommodations, may such circumstances be considered unusual thereby warranting authorized payment of actual expenses; (2) where travel is to an area that is not designated as a high cost geographical area but where the choice of accommodations is limited or the costs of accommodations are inflated because of conventions, sports events, natural disasters, or other causes which reduce the number of units available below the normal levels, may such events be considered as unusual circumstances of the travel assignment which would permit payment of expense to an employee on an actual expense basis; and (3) may the designation of a high rate geographical area be made retroactively when the existence of normal high costs sufficient to warrant such a designation was unknown to the Per Diem, Travel and Transportation Allowance Committee prior to the performance of travel in any individual case. GAO held that: (1) applicable regulations may be changed to permit use of the authority to pay actual expenses in unusual circumstances when travel is performed to localities which have not been designated as high cost geographical areas because of the infrequency of travel to those areas; (2) under established criteria, unusual circumstances at the location of temporary duty have been demonstrated in cases where unusual circumstances inflate the costs of accomodations; and (3) regulations may not be altered retroactively.