Request for Waiver of Overpayments of Pay

An employee requested reconsideration of an action allowing only partial waiver of the Government's claim against her for overpayment of pay. The overpayment resulted from a determination by the Office of Workers Compensation Programs that she was not entitled to the continuation-of-pay received after she had filed a claim for an injury incurred while at work. The claim was partially denied because the employee had a total of 70 hours of annual and sick leave available which could be used to offset a portion of the claim. A statute authorizes the continuation-of-pay of an employee when he has filed a claim for a period of wage loss due to injury. It also provides that if the claim is denied, the continuation-of-pay payments shall, at the option of the employee, be charged to annual or sick leave or shall be deemed overpayments of pay. In determining whether waiver should be granted, the interest of the Government, as well as that of the employee, must be considered. In this case, it was determined that the employee met the conditions for waiver. However, it was also determined that it would not be against equity or good conscience nor contrary to the best interest of the United States not to waive $326.20 which represented the value of her leave. GAO held that these determinations properly took into consideration the employee's and the Government's interests. Accordingly, the action of the Claims Division was sustained.