Claim by Military Member for Travel Expenses Incident to Retirement

A retired Army lieutenant colonel requested reconsideration of the disallowance of his claim for additional amounts for personal and dependents' travel incident to his retirement; the Claims Division found him to have been overpaid instead. While in Saudi Arabia, the colonel submitted a request for retirement and was scheduled for retirement at Fort Dix, New Jersey, where he was ordered, with concurrent air travel for his dependents. The family traveled there together for the colonel's separation processing, at which time he received orders authorizing, but not directing the use of, Government transportation to his selected retirement home at Athens, Greece. The colonel purchased four private air tickets from New York, New York to Athens and the family traveled there; there was no indication of an attempt to secure Government transportation or that it was unavailable. A claim for reimbursement for this travel, plus baggage handling and ground transportation expenses, was submitted by the Army to the GAO Claims Division as doubtful, and it was ruled that, although the colonel was entitled to transportation expenses from Saudi Arabia to Fort Dix and then to Greece, his dependents were entitled only to travel directly to Greece. Separation processing is temporary in nature and dependent travel is not customarily authorized for such assignments unless the separation point is also the selected retirement site. Since he never announced an intention to retire at or near Fort Dix, the colonel was not entitled to concurrent dependent travel. After adjusting the amounts owed to the colonel for authorized travel expenses and the amounts claimed by him for unauthorized dependents' travel expenses, GAO sustained the Claims Division settlement and concluded that the colonel's total reimbursement obligation amounted to over $900.