[Request for Waiver of Claim for Overpayment of Compensation]

A civilian Army employee appealed a Claims Group decision which denied his request for a waiver of a claim against him for a compensation overpayment. The overpayment resulted from the Army's failure to make proper deductions from his salary for his optional life insurance coverage. At the time of a transfer, the Army had failed to note that the employee had elected to take both regular and optional life insurance coverage and, until the error was discovered, the Army only deducted regular life insurance premiums from the employee's salary. A request for waiver of the employee's indebtedness was forwarded to GAO by the Army with a recommendation that the waiver be approved in part. Despite the Army's recommendation, the Claims Group denied the waiver in its entirety, since the employee could have detected the error through an examination of his leave and earnings statements. In his appeal, the employee asserted that he did not know, and could not reasonably have known, that optional premium payments were not being deducted from his salary. GAO can waive claims for overpayment of pay and allowances only if there is no indication of fraud, misrepresentation, fault, or lack of good faith on the part of the employee. GAO considers that fault exists if it is determined that the employee should have known that the error existed and failed to take action to have it corrected. GAO believes that an examination of the employee's leave and earnings statements should have revealed the underdeduction. Accordingly, the prior denial of the employee's request for indebtedness waiver was sustained.