Request for Reconsideration

A civilian employee of the Air Force requested reconsideration of a GAO decision which held that his retirement date could not be retroactively changed. The employee had wanted to retire prior to March 1, 1980, to obtain the cost-of-living increase then payable to Federal retirees. His supervisor wanted him to continue in his position after that date as a reemployed annuitant. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) advised the Air Force that career reserved senior executive service positions could not be filled with reemployed annuitants. Upon receiving this information, the employee decided not to retire and the matter was dropped. OPM later advised the Air Force that senior executive service retirees could be retained as reemployed annuitants, and the Air Force notified the employee on the same day. This allowed the employee several days to submit a retirement application if he desired to retire before March 1. On March 11, he submitted his application and requested an effective date of February 29, 1980. GAO had found that the employee's separation was not effected under a mistake of law or fact and there was no administrative error which would constitute an unwarranted or unjustified personnel action. Accordingly, GAO held that his retirement could not be made retroactive as requested. The employee believed that the Air Force's failure to formally submit the issue to OPM constituted an administrative error. To find that the Air Force's action constituted an administrative error, there would have to exist some nondiscretionary regulation or policy that required an agency to submit such matters to OPM. No such regulation existed in this case. Accordingly, GAO sustained its former decision holding that the effective date of the employee's retirement could not be retroactively changed.