[Request for Advance Decision Regarding Deduction of Increases From Civil Service Salary of Military Retirees]

The Department of Commerce requested a decision as to whether it should: (1) make retroactive deductions from the salaries of military retirees in its employ who erroneously received cost-of-living increases as well as annual civil-service pay increases; or (2) make refunds to those employees from whom it had collected the correct amounts. GAO found that: (1) the legislation repealing the pay deductions was not retroactive; and (2) no basis existed for refunds to those employees from whose pay the agency correctly made deductions. Accordingly, the agency should collect the amounts still due for the period during which the law required the deduction.