Reimbursement of New Appointees for Travel and Relocation Expenses

An advance decision was requested concerning reimbursement of travel and relocation expenses incurred by four new appointees of the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in a non-manpower-shortage category. The four employees were assigned to the FWS Washington, D.C. office for a period of about 4 months. During that time they spent about 2 weeks in Washington and the remainder in training in Glynco, Georgia. The main issue was whether Washington was their duty station for the purpose of determining their entitlement to reimbursement of travel and relocation expenses. The agency stated that it has paid similar claims and others are pending. The record indicated that the agency erroneously indicated Washington as the permanent duty station instead of a temporary duty station while the appointees trained for 4 months. New appointees must bear the expense of reporting to their first official duty station and such duty station must be where a major part of the employees' duties are performed. Therefore, the new appointees cannot be reimbursed travel and relocation expenses from Washington, D.C. to the next duty station. The new appointees were erroneously authorized house-hunting trips from the training site to the first duty station. The agency should charge the employees annual leave for the time spent on house-hunting trips. However, new hires and transferees may be authorized subsistence at Washington, D.C. since it was a training site and not a permanent duty station. Finally, new hires who traveled to training sites en route to first duty station may be authorized travel expenses in excess of what would have been incurred in traveling direct from the employees' homes to their first duty station. Erroneous payments must be collected.