Claim for Foreign Transfer Allowance

A civilian employee of the Army appealed the denial of his claim for temporary quarters subsistence expenses and a foreign transfer allowance (FTA) for predeparture expenses incident to his transfer overseas. The employee claimed on appeal that he was entitled to the FTA and that the Army's failure to authorize payment for the expenses was due to an administrative error. Statutory law specifically prohibits payment of temporary quarters expense allowances to employees transferred overseas. Furthermore, granting of FTA is discretionary with the agency concerned; and since the Army implementing regulation which authorizes payment of FTA to its employees did not go into effect until after the employee was transferred, there was no authority to pay the claim. Therefore, the previous denial of his claim was sustained.