[Request for Advance Decision Regarding Lump-Sum Payment for Accumulated Annual Leave]

An authorized certifying officer for the International Boundary and Water Commission requested an advance decision regarding the proper pay rate to use to determine the lump-sum payment for accumulated annual leave that was due a former commissioner. After resigning his original position to become commissioner, and serving in that position until his voluntary resignation, the former commissioner was appointed, without a break in service, to a competitive position in his former agency. He was allowed to carry forward the accumulated hours of leave saved from the date of his appointment as commissioner, and voluntarily retired from government service with an accumulated balance of 478 hours of annual leave. GAO found that, when the employee received an appointed position, he was excepted from coverage and not entitled to payment at that time; however, any accrued leave was to remain to his credit to serve as a basis for lump-sum payment after his separation from the excepted position, or for recredit if he was later employed in a position covered under the regulations, and required liquidation at the last rate of compensation received immediately prior to the lump-sum payment. Accordingly, the employee's last pay rate divided by 2,087 hours was the proper basis for computing the lump-sum payment.