[Decision Concerning Treasury Employee's Request for Waiver of Erroneous Overpayments]

A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) employee appealed the BATF denial of his request for waiver of overpayments BATF made to him as a result of its error in calculating his retirement benefits. GAO noted that the error occurred when BATF promoted the employee and removed him from administratively uncontrolled overtime, causing his gross pay to decrease. The employee expected his retirement withholding to decrease and did not realize that, as result of his promotion, the rate of deduction should have increased. GAO held that the employee was not at fault in not questioning the accuracy of his pay. Accordingly, the overpayment was waived.