[Claim Concerning Pay Adjustment Based on Advanced Hiring Rate]

A Navy employee appealed a Claims Group decision which denied his claim for reinstatement of his advanced rate of pay. The Navy discovered that it had erroneously based the employee's advanced rate on the retired pay he was receiving from his previous job and it corrected the mistake by excluding the retired pay and recalculating his salary to a lower figure. The employee disagreed with the action, arguing that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) granted the Navy authority to include existing pay when calculating advance pay. GAO noted that the authority did not allow inclusion of retirement pay and the Navy violated the regulation which prohibits such a practice. Further, the Navy also violated its agreement with OPM to submit each advance rate of pay for OPM approval. GAO also noted that, although the Navy misinformed the employee as to the terms of his employment by acknowledging the retired pay, the Navy was not estopped from correcting the mistake. Accordingly, the Claims Group decision was sustained.