[Question of Whether BLM Reinstated Employee Is Eligible for Reimbursement of Training Costs]

The Bureau of Land Management requested a decision regarding an employee's entitlement to be paid for training after he had been dismissed by the agency and before he had been reinstated. Specifically, the employee claimed training costs that the government would have paid had he not been dismissed. He also claimed interest on personal funds that he used while separated, as well as the cost of buying health insurance. Federal labor arbitrators determined that the dismissal was improper and instructed that the employee be reinstated, which entitled him to backpay. GAO held that reinstated employees who are eligible for backpay may be reimbursed for costs incurred during a period of improper removal if the costs would have been paid by the government. The other claimed expenses, however, were incidental to the situation and were not reimbursable. Accordingly, the employee was entitled to the training costs, but not to interest or health care costs.