[Comments on Appeal of Claims Group's Settlement of Claim for Mileage]

B-218798.2, Mar 7, 1989, Office of General Counsel

CIVILIAN PERSONNEL - Travel - Temporary duty - Travel expenses - Privately-owned vehicles - Mileage DIGEST: An employee, who was assigned to a nearby temporary audit site for a period of 11 days, used his family automobile for two roundtrips each day because his spouse drove him to work and picked him up after work each day. Under the Federal Travel Regulations and the agency's implementing regulations, the employee is limited to mileage reimbursement fcr one roundtrip by his privately owned vehicle each day.

Dear Mr. [redacted]:

This is in response to your appeal of our Claims Group settlement limiting your claim for mileage between your residence and a temporary audit site. /1/

Your claim is for mileage between your residence in Reading, Massachusetts, and a temporary audit site in Burlington, Massachusetts, for a period of 11 days in 1984. Since you and your spouse owned only one vehicle at that time and since other methods of transportation were impractical or cost-prohibitive, your spouse made two roundtrips of 18 miles between Reading and Burlington each day of your assignment. Our Claims Group limited your claim to one roundtrip each day, less the normal rail commuting costs, and denied the balance of your claim, approximately $40.

We know of no basis to allow your claim. The provision you cite in the Federal Travel Regulations allows reimbursement of two roundtrips between the employee's residence and a common carrier terminal. /2/ This applies only to travel to and from a common carrier terminal. Furthermore, it is an exception to the normal rules on mileage reimbursement and is specifically limited to a cost not to exceed the cost of taxi fare plus tips.

The GAO's own travel regulations, GAO Order 0.300.3, clearly indicate that mileage shall be computed by one-way distances between the employee's residence and temporary audit site. See GAO Order 0.300.3, chap. 2, para. 2b (Sept. 12, 1980). This provision is not inconsistent with the FTR and is a valid agency implementation of the FTR.

Accordingly, we sustain our Claims Groups determination limiting your reimbursement to one roundtrip per day.

/1/ Settlement Certificate Z-2863646, Feb. 19, 1988.

/2/ FTR para. 1-4.2c(1) (Supp. 4 Aug. 23, 1982), incorp. by ref., 41 C.F.R. Sec. 101-7.003 (1987).