B-243300, Sep 17, 1991

B-243300, Sep 17, 1991

DIGEST: Bonneville Power Administration may pay for a wheelchair van to transport a handicapped employee home on the rare occasions when her disability strikes her at work. The agency has an interest in avoiding disruption at the office and is required by law to make "reasonable accommodation" for handicapped employees.

Bonneville Power Administration - Wheelchair Van Transportation Expenses for Disabled Employee:

An authorized certifying officer with the Bonneville Power Administration, Department of Energy, Portland, Oregon, requests an advance decision as to whether occasional wheelchair van transportation may be paid for to accommodate a handicapped employee. For the reasons indicated below, we hold that such an expenditure is permissible.

Background

According to the submission, when the employee's disability strikes at work she becomes distressed and is unable to walk. "In that condition, she is no longer able to perform her assigned duties and the situation becomes very disruptive to the entire office." The submission states that at such times the employee needs transportation assistance to get to her home. Normally, the employee relies on the local bus system to get to and from work and has no alternative means of transportation. She also has no relatives in the area to help her when the disability occurs. In the past, fellow employees have transported her home "even though they were subjecting themselves to personal liability." The Administration has been advised by a psychologist that "employees are to discontinue that practice because they are not competent to make an assessment of her medical condition at the time of transportation." The disability strikes the employee approximately three times a year and the occasional use of wheelchair van transportation "would mean a total annual expense of approximately $150."

The submission correctly points out that federal employees are normally expected to pay for their own transportation from their homes to their places of employment and back, since this is a personal expense. See B-243677; B-243674, May 13, 1991. However, under regulations implementing section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 791 (1988), "the Federal Government shall make reasonable accommodation to the known physical or mental limitations of a qualified handicapped ... employee unless the agency can demonstrate that the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the operation of its program." 29 C.F.R. Sec. 1613.703-704 (1990). The commitment to assist the handicapped has also been reflected in GAO decisions. We have held that agencies may, when acting under the authority of the Rehabilitation Act, expend appropriated funds to accommodate the handicapped. See B-240271, October 15, 1990 and examples cited therein. See also 68 Comp.Gen. 242 (1989) (extra baggage handling fees allowable for traveling disabled employee) and 64 Comp.Gen. 310 (1985) (additional subsistence expenses allowable for handicapped employee who arrived at temporary duty site early and delayed return to avoid traveling in inclement weather).

In the present case, as the cost of the van service is minimal and poses no undue hardship to the Administration, the expenditure is permissible to accommodate the handicapped employee, assuming she is qualified under the Rehabilitation Act. See 64 Comp.Gen. 310, 314 (1985). Our decision, however, should not be interpreted as generally allowing an agency to pay transportation costs for handicapped employees between their homes and places of employment. Rather, today's holding is limited to those rare situations in which sending a handicapped employee home is in the best interests of the agency. In the present case, for example, when the employee's disability strikes, the office is disrupted until she can be sent home.