[Request for Decision Concerning Travel and Transportation Entitlements of Geological Survey Employee]

GAO was asked for a decision concerning the travel, transportation, and certain other relocation expense entitlements of a Geological Survey employee incident to a permanent change of duty station. The employee claimed entitlement to various per diem, temporary quarters subsistence, and mileage allowances disallowed by the agency, asserting that these expenses were properly reimbursable due to an alleged cost benefit to the government and because they had been approved by the agency. GAO found that, under applicable travel regulations: (1) the claimant was entitled to payment for househunting per diem; (2) since the claimant's air travel at government expense exhausted his permanent change-of-station travel entitlement, he was not entitled to reimbursement for mileage expenses for a vehicle which was shipped; (3) the claimant was entitled to mileage reimbursement for a vehicle in which his dependents traveled to his new duty station; and (4) the claimant was entitled to temporary quarters reimbursement for the period not later than 30 days from the date he reported for duty or not later than 30 days from the date his family vacated the residence at the old duty station. Accordingly, the claimant was entitled to reimbursement for some of the claimed expenses.