[Propriety of Approving Voucher for Reductions in Retired Pay]
Highlights
GAO was asked for an advance decision concerning the propriety of approving a voucher in favor of a retired Army member. The amount of the voucher represented reductions in the member's retired pay for a period of about 1 year, which are refundable to him if it may be concluded that he is entitled to revoke his previous decision to provide Survivor Benefit Plan annuity coverage for his spouse and dependent children and withhold this coverage from a son born in 1981 from his second marriage. When the member first elected to participate in the plan in 1973, his only dependent child was an 18-year-old daughter. The year after his son was born, the member requested that the Army extend the annuity coverage to him. Because of the greater probability that his son would succeed to an annuity than had been the case with his daughter, the costs to the member of his son's coverage were considerably higher, and the member indicated that he wished to cancel his son's coverage and be reimbursed for the amount he had already paid toward it. GAO found that: (1) when a member elects to have dependent child annuity coverage on becoming a participant in the plan, the coverage automatically extends to any children he thereafter acquires; (2) the member's decision to participate in the plan was binding and could not be unilaterally revoked by him; (3) a 1-year open enrollment under the plan granted by Congress in 1981 did not give personnel who were already participants the option of reducing the level of their participation or withdrawing from the plan altogether; (4) when a participant of the plan acquires a dependent child and has no other children remaining who are eligible for an annuity, the costs of the coverage are to be reinstated and computed under the prescribed method; and (5) the newly acquired child was eligible for an annuity even if the member had not notified the Army of his existence. Accordingly, the voucher may not be approved for payment.