[Decision Concerning Appeal of Claims Group's Denial of Army Employee's Request for Waiver of Erroneous Salary Overpayments]

An Army employee appealed his denied request for waiver of erroneous salary overpayments he received over a 12-year period, contending that the overpayments resulted from an administrative error which incorrectly set his grade. GAO held that: (1) the claimant was at fault in accepting the overpayments, since he had access to a personnel record which showed the error; and (2) statutory law limited the Army's collection of the overpayments to the amount it paid for 10 years prior to notifying the claimant. Accordingly, the claim was denied, and GAO recommended that the Army recompute the amount it could collect subject to statutory limitation.