[Decision Concerning Amount of Debt Owed by DOE Employee]

The Department of Energy (DOE) requested a decision concerning the amount a DOE employee owed the government for use of free bonus airline tickets for personal travel. GAO held that: (1) DOE properly used the fair market value of the tickets as a measure of the employee's debt; (2) the employee was required to reimburse the government for any bonus mileage points he received as a result of official travel; (3) DOE should have required the employee to account for earned but unredeemed mileage points; and (4) since the employee did not reveal how he used the bonus mileage points, DOE properly chose the time and location of travel from the possible redemption locations in calculating his debt. Accordingly, the employee was required to reimburse the government for the fair market value of the tickets.