Entitlement to Flight Pay

A former Air Force member appealed the Claims Division's denial of waiver of his indebtedness to the United States, which arose from erroneous payments of flight pay during the period June 1976 through January 1978. The claimant, while serving on active duty in the Air Force, was in a status which entitled him to receive flight pay. In June 1976, he was transferred overseas on a permanent change-of-station (PCS) assignment, at which time he was no longer in a flight pay status. Due to administrative error the orders were not canceled at the time of his PCS and flight pay continued to be paid to him until January 1978. The claimant asserted in his original application for waiver that he was not aware of his nonentitlement to receive flight pay after his overseas transfer until he had a routine records review several months after his arrival. He claimed that, immediately upon receiving that notice, he notified all the appropriate financial activities and was advised that the error would be corrected. The claimant's position was that, since the appropriate administrative officials knew about the error and failed to take action for many months, he should not be responsible for their errors and should not be required to repay the monies received. GAO held that even though the payments were due to an administrative error, the waiver of debt must be denied. Since he knew he was being overpaid, the claimant had the responsibility of insuring that the money would be returnable by setting it aside for subsequent refund on request. Accordingly, the decision of the Claims Division was sustained.