B-238614, Jul 26, 1990

B-238614, Jul 26, 1990

CIVILIAN PERSONNEL - Travel - Travel expenses - Documentation procedures - Burden of proof CIVILIAN PERSONNEL - Travel - Travel expenses - Fraud - Effects DIGEST: This summary letter decision addresses well established rules which have been discussed in previous Comptroller General decisions. To locate substantive decisions addressing this issue, refer to decisions indexed under the above listed index entry.

James R. Atchison:

Mr. James R. Atchison, through counsel, has appealed our Claims Group Settlement, Z-2866296, April 6, 1989. That settlement sustained his employing agency's finding of travel voucher fraud and upheld its action to recoup reimbursements made to him for certain lodging expenses claimed.

Mr. Atchison, a discharged employee of the Air Force, performed temporary duty travel in 1980 and 1981 and claimed the cost of lodging on various travel vouchers. Following reimbursement, an Air Force investigation developed that a number of lodging receipts submitted by him to support those voucher payments were of questionable validity. It was eventually established that, although the receipts purported to show that he had made payment, Mr. Atchison actually had not paid for that lodging. Mr. Atchison, acting through counsel, did not make payment for these lodging costs until well after the fact of nonpayment was established.

Eventually, Mr. Atchison was discharged from federal employment. In 1987 recoupment action based on fraud was initiated and recovery was made of monies reimbursed him in 1980 and 1981 for that lodging.

In his appeal, Mr. Atchison's counsel argues that our settlement was based on incomplete records and hearsay evidence. Additionally, it contains a number of technical and factual inaccuracies regarding the relationship of the various parties connected with the ownership and possession of the condominium where Mr. Atchison stayed. He contends that there is no direct evidence showing that Mr. Atchison accepted free lodging at the Park Fairfax Lodge (PFL) or falsified lodging receipts. also argues that the vouchers signed by Mr. Atchison only certified that he incurred a particular obligation at the time the voucher was submitted which would be paid later, likening it to a credit card transaction. Further, since Mr. Atchison subsequently made payment, all conditions supporting reimbursement were satisfied; hence, there was no fraud.

We have reviewed the settlement issued by our Claims Group and conclude that the facts which are central to the case do not support counsel's analogy to use of a credit card.

The file contains copies of lodging receipts from the PFL issued to Mr. Atchison for dates he stayed there. Each show a lodging charge, a credit for payment made by him at the time, resulting in a referenced zero balance due. These receipts were marked paid and initialed, and included one marked as a cash payment. Mr. Atchison included these lodging receipts with various of the vouchers he submitted in 1980 and 1981, and was reimbursed based in part on those lodging receipts, although he did not make payment to PFL until 1983 and 1984.

The submission of lodging receipts marked paid showing no outstanding balance due in order to obtain reimbursement represents not only that an obligation to pay was incurred, but that it was satisfied by actual payment. Since Mr. Atchison had not made that payment when he sought reimbursement, the reimbursement was obtained by misrepresentation and that is fraud. We have held that subsequent actions taken by an employee in an effort to rectify a prior fraudulent act neither makes the prior act less fraudulent nor does it avoid the resultant consequences of the fraud. Mark J. Worst, B-223026, Nov. 3, 1987.

Accordingly, we concur with our Claims Group conclusion that the Air Force's finding of indebtedness due to fraud was valid and the collection action taken against Mr. Atchison was proper.