Claim for Mileage and Per Diem
Highlights
A civilian employee of the Army appealed the denial of his claim for mileage and per diem expenses. The employee had been tranferred to a new permanent duty station. Since he believed that the transfer was contrary to regulations, he filed a formal complaint to have the transfer rescinded and commuted daily to the new station rather than relocate. The Army subsequently reassigned him to his previous station, canceled his relocation orders, and retroactively designated the intended relocation as temporary duty. The employee therefore claimed mileage and per diem for one meal a day. GAO has held that remedial action restoring an employee to his former position does not change the nature of the duty performed from permanent to temporary. Therefore, the employee was not entitled to commuting and per diem expenses for temporary duty. However, the cost-of-living allowance that had been paid to him during the period in question, and which he had returned to the Army when the duty was retroactively designated as temporary, was to be returned to him since it was a permanent duty entitlement. Accordingly, the claim for mileage and per diem was denied.