Claim for Additional Per Diem

The Bureau of Mines requested a decision as to whether payment may be made to a transferred employee for per diem and temporary quarters subsistence expenses. The employee's claim was based on the maximum statutory rate established by his travel orders, which was in excess of the rate established by the Department of the Interior for travel between his old and new duty stations and for occupying temporary quarters. When the employee submitted his claim, his reimbursement was reduced to comply with departmental regulations. The Bureau believed that the per diem rate set by the Interior regulations was applicable and that the employee could not be reimbursed on the basis of per diem rates that conflict with such regulations, even though they were authorized by the employee's travel orders. Federal Travel Regulations provide that it is the responsibility of each agency to authorize only such per diem allowances as are justified by the circumstances affecting the travel. There is no requirement that per diem be authorized at the maximum statutory rate upon transfer from one official station to another. GAO held that, since Interior has established a per diem rate payable for the expenses of traveling between old and new official stations and for purposes of the temporary quarters subsistence expenses allowance, there was no authority by which the employee could be authorized either allowance based on a higher per diem rate. To the extent that the employee's travel orders purport to establish a rate in excess of the Interior rate, that authorization was without effect. Accordingly, the employee's claim for reimbursement of additional per diem or temporary quarters subsistence expenses may not be allowed.