Claim for Travel Expenses
Highlights
An advance decision was requested concerning the reimbursement of an employee who purchased a train ticket to replace an unserialized ticket issued on a Government Travel Request (GTR). While the employee was on her trip, the original return ticket and other personal items were stolen from her hotel room. She purchased another ticket to return home and, subsequently, filed a reimbursement voucher claiming the amount she spent on the return ticket as an expense item. GAO held that, because the employee purchased a replacement ticket with personal funds since the unserialized ticket previously issued on a GTR was stolen and unavailable through no fault of the employee, she may be reimbursed for the full amount of the replacement ticket.