[Reconsideration of Claim for Waiver of Erroneous Overpayments]

An Air Force captain requested reconsideration of a Claims Group decision to partially waive his indebtedness to the United States which arose from overpayments of pay. When the captain first entered active duty as a medical officer, his paydate was erroneously based on the determination that the 4 years during which he studied podiatry were creditable years of service. Six months later, his paydate was corrected and he received verbal confirmation that the amended date was the correct one. Written confirmation came 11 months later. However, after the paydate was corrected, the captain continued to received payments based on the erroneous paydate. He maintained that he was unaware of the overpayments until 18 months after the date had been corrected. The Claims Group held that the captain first became aware of the overpayments when the paydate was corrected, at which time he had questioned and received confirmation of the modification on his earnings statement. Therefore, the Claims Group waived the captain's liability only for those overpayments which occurred prior to that date. GAO stated that the fact that the overpayments occurred through administrative error did not relieve the member of liability when he was aware of the possibility of being overpaid. Accordingly, the Claims Group determination was sustained.