Entitlement to Allowances Under Missing Persons Act

A Foreign Service officer claimed entitlement to station per diem allowance, quarters allowance, overtime compensation, interest, and any other special or incentive pay to which he might have been entitled under the Missing Persons Act for the 7-year period during which he was a prisoner in Vietnam. The officer was detailed to the Agency for International Development and was on a temporary duty assignment at the time of his capture. His claim for overtime was allowed by the Department of State, but his claim for station per diem allowance, quarters allowance, and other benefits was forwarded to GAO. The Claims Division allowed the claim for station per diem up to 90 days but denied the claim for station per diem beyond 90 days and other benefits. On appeal, the officer argued that, since the per diem that he was receiving while he was on temporary duty was actually incentive pay, he should be entitled to its continuation during the period of his captivity. Under the Act, a military or civilian employee is entitled to receive or to have credited to his account the same basic pay, special pay, incentive pay, basic allowance for quarters, and station per diem allowances to which he was entitled at the beginning of the period of his absence, not to exceed 90 days. The military term, station per diem, under the Act may be equated with a civilian post allowance. Therefore, GAO held that, if the officer was receiving a post allowance at the time of his capture, that allowance may be continued for 90 days. According to State Department officials, the allowance the officer received while he was on the temporary assignment was a travel per diem allowance. However, the record did not indicate that the officer received incentive pay, and the Act states that travel per diem does not continue once an individual enters a missing status. In this case, it appeared that State Department employees were either furnished Government quarters or were provided with a quarters allowance. Thus, GAO held that the officer's claim for quarters allowance should be paid based upon the applicable quarters allowance in effect at that time. There was no authority to allow the claim for interest. Accordingly, the denial of the claim for travel per diem during the officer's captivity and the claim for interest were sustained.