Propriety of Recoupment of Payments to DOL Employee

The Department of Labor (DOL) requested a decision as to whether payments made to a DOL employee were subject to recoupment. The employee represented himself as a city employee in order to continue the work he had begun on an assignment under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) while he was a State employee. The agreement under IPA extended his employment for about 2 years, when it was terminated and the employee received a career-conditional appointment. An investigation revealed that he had never been employed by the city in question. DOL voided his assignment and proposed his removal from his current position. A condition precedent to employment under IPA is that the applicant be an employee of a State or local government, or an institution of higher learning. GAO has held that where falsification in an application involves an absolute bar to employemnt, the employee has no legal rights under the appointment; he is regarded as a de facto employee and is allowed to retain those payments already made to him. The Intergovernmental Personnel Act does not contain an express provision prohibiting the payments or requiring the recovery of those already made to an employee. Therefore, the employee had a de facto status for the period of the IPA assignments, and was entitled to keep the salary payments he received.