Skip to main content

B-230960, Apr 11, 1988

B-230960 Apr 11, 1988
Jump To:
Skip to Highlights

Highlights

CIVILIAN PERSONNEL - Compensation - Congressional details - Executive Branch personnel - Propriety DIGEST: Nonreimbursable detail of two Treasury Department employees to congressional committee to assist in oversight and review of the FTS 2000 project is appropriate under Comptroller General decisions. Based on agency determination that detail will further purposes for which agency's appropriations are available. Details to Congressional Committees: We have been asked whether appropriations for the Department of the Treasury are available to pay the salaries of two employees who have been detailed from the Department to the Committee on Government Operations. The Department's Deputy General Counsel has represented that the services of these employees will aid the Department in accomplishing a purpose for which its appropriation is made available.

View Decision

B-230960, Apr 11, 1988

CIVILIAN PERSONNEL - Compensation - Congressional details - Executive Branch personnel - Propriety DIGEST: Nonreimbursable detail of two Treasury Department employees to congressional committee to assist in oversight and review of the FTS 2000 project is appropriate under Comptroller General decisions, based on agency determination that detail will further purposes for which agency's appropriations are available.

Details to Congressional Committees:

We have been asked whether appropriations for the Department of the Treasury are available to pay the salaries of two employees who have been detailed from the Department to the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, to assist in the oversight and review of the FTS -2000 project. The Department's Deputy General Counsel has represented that the services of these employees will aid the Department in accomplishing a purpose for which its appropriation is made available.

We have long recognized that executive branch employees may be detailed to committees of Congress. 21 Comp.Gen. 1055 (1942). The question of whether agency employees may be detailed on a nonreimbursable basis depends, however, upon whether the particular services the employee will perform further a purpose for which the agency's appropriation was made. 64 Comp.Gen. 370, 379 (1985).

For an agency to use its funds to pay the salary of an employee detailed to a congressional committee, the work of the committee must aid the agency in accomplishing a purpose for which its appropriation was made, "such as by obviating the necessity for the performance by such agency of the same or similar work." 21 Comp.Gen. 1055, 1058, supra. The work performed under the detail must involve a matter similar or related to matters ordinarily handled by the loaning agency. 64 Comp.Gen. 370, 380, supra.

While it is not directly responsible for procurement of the FTS-2000 system, the Department of the Treasury is one of the largest users of the FTS systems and, as such, has a significant role in the conduct of the FTS -2000 and related procurements. It is one of six agencies represented on the FTS-2000 Inter-Agency Management Council. As set forth in the Conference Report on H.J. Res. 395, H.R. Rept. 498, 100th Cong., 1st Sess. 1166 (1987), the Council is chaired by the Administrator of General Services or his designee:

"... to oversee the conduct of the FTS-2000 and all related procurements. The Council shall consist of the senior information resources management officials (designated pursuant to 44 U.S.C. 3506) from each of the top six agencies in terms of current FTS network usage as of December, 1986. No later than July 1, 1989, the Council shall complete a comprehensive study of the government's information network requirements through the year 2000 and publish the results no later than that date."

We have been advised by the Department that it anticipates devoting substantial staff resources to support its participation on the Council. This effort coincides with its own interests in securing the most workable and affordable system.

Under these circumstances, there is more than a mere mutuality of interests between the committee's work and that of the Department of the Treasury. Cf., 64 Comp.Gen.370, 379, supra. As represented by the Department, the work of the detailed employees may well reduce the efforts the Department will have to undertake to fulfill its congressionally mandated role on the FTS-2000 Interagency Management Council. The employees, therefore, may serve under nonreimbursable details.

GAO Contacts

Office of Public Affairs