[Penalty for Involuntary Rerouting on Foreign Carrier]

GAO was asked whether a Central Intelligence Agency employee must be assessed a penalty under the Fly America Act when the U.S. air carrier flight on which he had scheduled his return to the United States from a point along an indirect route was discontinued and the U.S. carrier rescheduled his transoceanic travel on a foreign air carrier. GAO decisions involving indirect travel hold that an employee is financially responsible to the extent that his personal travel results in a reduction in receipt of Government revenues by U.S. air carriers over revenues they would have earned had the employee performed only authorized travel. However, an employee should not be penalized when a U.S. air carrier involuntarily reroutes the employee and frustrates scheduling arrangements that would not have involved a loss of revenues by U.S. air carriers. GAO decisions have allowed the use of a foreign air carrier even though an employee is on leave status when a U.S. air carrier is unavailable. In this case, GAO found that the penalty was not applicable, because the employee originally planned his indirect travel by U.S. air carriers but, at the time he was to use the planned travel, the U.S. air carrier was not available and no alternative schedule was available for travel on U.S. air carriers.