Travel Expenses of Attendant for Transferred Handicapped Employee

An advance decision was requested concerning the propriety and method of paying the travel expenses of an attendant who accompanied an employee and his wife, both of them blind, on a househunting trip and on a permanent change of station move. The employee was authorized travel expenses for an attendant in connection with his transfer. The following expenses were claimed: per diem expenses for the attendant and reimbursement for mileage at the rate payable for three occupants in a car for the househunting trip, per diem allowance for the round trip incident to the permanent change of station travel, and reimbursement for the attendant's return trip at the rate allowed for one occupant of the car. It has previously been held that when agency determines that a handicapped employee, who is unable to travel without an attendant, should perform official temporary duty travel, the travel expenses of the attendant including per diem and transportation expenses, may be paid. The federal government's policy to employ the handicapped and to prohibit discrimination due to handicaps would be frustrated if an employee were required to bear the financial burden of an attendant's expenses. In this case, GAO saw no reason to vary the employee's or any other handicapped employee's entitlement to reimbursement for an attendant's travel according to the type of travel performed. GAO believed that the attendant should be paid: (1) at the full per diem rate for the househunting trip; and (2) an appropriate per diem rate, not to exceed the full per diem rate, for the time he spent on the permanent change of station travel. Thus, it was held that the travel expenses for the attendant, including the reimbursement of mileage, were allowed.