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Entitlement of Military Member To Receive Payment of Alaskan Housing and Cost-of-Living Allowances

B-195570 May 15, 1980
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Highlights

A request was made concerning the propriety of a Coast Guard member receiving payments of Alaskan housing and cost-of-living allowances. The record showed that the Coast Guard member was transferred from a permanent duty assignment in Texas to a restricted station in Alaska. As the new duty station was restricted, the Coast Guard member relocated his family to Anchorage, Alaska. Following his arrival at his new duty assignment, the Coast Guard member filed a claim for station allowances on behalf of his dependents on the basis that he supposedly had been advised by competent authority that immediately following his restricted station tour, he would be reassigned to permanent duty at the U.S. Coast Guard Communication Station, Kodiak, Alaska, and serve an accompanied tour. Some months later, verification of a followup accompanied permanent duty assignment was confirmed and the Coast Guard member was authorized station allowances. GAO held that the conditions under which station allowances for dependents may be authorized in this type of situation are strictly controlled by regulations which require that an official determination of the follow-on assignment be made prior to relocating the member's dependents to the designated location. In this case, the orders assigning the Coast Guard member to a restricted station in Alaska made no mention of the member's next duty station or of his dependents' travel. Further, there was no indication in the record that this was firmly intended by authorities in the Coast Guard who could make such a determination prior to the time the dependents moved. The only authorizing order was issued months after travel was performed, and even that order was insufficient because the Coast Guard member did not have enough time remaining on his enlistment to support the follow-on assignment to Kodiak, Alaska. Therefore, GAO held that the station allowances may not be paid.

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