[Appeal of Denial of Erroneous Payments Waiver]

An Air Force employee appealed the Claims Group's denial of a waiver of erroneous payments that he received for basic pay and non-foreign-area differential. The employee was transferred and was notified that his basic pay would remain unchanged and that he would receive a specific non-foreign-area differential. A payroll computation error resulted in the employee's receiving more than double the amount that had been indicated. GAO noted that, although the error was not caused by the employee, the employee's payroll statements showed the error. Therefore, the employee knew or should have known that an error had been made. GAO has held that an employee is responsible for verifying the correctness of unexplained payroll increases and that failure to do so precludes the employee's innocence in the matter. GAO held that, since the employee knowingly failed to notify the Air Force of the error, waiver of the erroneous payments could not be granted. Accordingly, the Claims Group's denial was sustained.