Claim for Travel Expenses

GAO was asked for a decision as to whether an air traffic control specialist was entitled to reimbursement for travel expenses incurred incident to a change of station. The employee in question was offered a transfer, because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) informed him that he had failed his training course. FAA also advised the employee that the transfer would be at no expense to the government. The employee accepted the transfer and traveled to his new station by private vehicle. Subsequently, it was determined that the training program at the old station had been flawed so that the employee had not received training to which he was entitled. The employee was then allowed to return to his former station and reenter the training program. The employee submitted a claim for expenses incurred in traveling to the transfer station, but this was denied by FAA. FAA did not respond to the GAO notification of the employee's request for a decision, so GAO had no indication of the reasoning behind the FAA denial of the claim. However, based on the information provided by the employee's union, GAO determined that the employee would not have been transferred but for the FAA error and thus his transfer was not for personal convenience. Accordingly, the employee was entitled to reimbursement for the travel expenses incident to his transfer.