Request for Reconsideration of Indebtedness Waiver

A former member of the Navy requested reconsideration of an application for waiver of a debt owed to the Government. The debt arose from erroneous payments of basic allowance for quarters (BAQ) at the with-dependents rate when the amount of support provided to his dependent was less than the applicable BAQ rate. He had been informed that to be entitled to the BAQ at that rate the support payments could not be less than the BAQ rate. The employee had been paying the entire BAQ amount until he received information from civilian and Navy officials regarding the effect of reducing the allotment for support payments. At this time, the support payments were in fact reduced. The Navy determined that the employee was erroneously paid after the reduction of the support payments because of the regulations which restrict payment of an amount below the BAQ rate; it commenced to retrieve the amount paid after the reduction. Although the employee originally contended that he had been misinformed regarding the reduction in payments and that he had no idea that he was being overpaid, the Navy maintained that he should have known that he received contradicting information and should have pursued the matter further. Otherwise, he would have been obligated to follow the instructions he had originally received. In his appeal, the employee contended that the officials who gave him the erroneous information were to blame for the error since it is they who misunderstood the employee's problem. GAO held that it was clear that the employee was aware of the BAQ requirement when he first began receiving the BAQ, but after receiving official word that he could reduce his monthly support allotment to an amount less than he was receiving for the BAQ, he may have been confused as to his entitlement, particularly in view of his limited Navy experience. Therefore, GAO concluded that, if the employee had not been given the erroneous information, he would have continued to pay the full allotment and the BAQ payments would not have been erroneous. Accordingly, a partial waiver was granted in the amount of that which the employee actually allotted to the support of the child.