Request for Reimbursement of Travel Expenses and Restoration of Annual Leave

GAO was asked whether a Bureau of Mines employee could be reimbursed for travel expenses and have his annual leave restored. The record showed that the employee requested annual leave to be used in December 1979 which was approved by an appropriate supervisor. The employee subsequently made his personal travel arrangements and, for making the advance airline reservations, the employee was offered a super-saver fare. Shortly thereafter, the employee was told to attend a training seminar during December 1979. The employee subsequently canceled his personal reservations and was authorized travel expenses including a round-trip airline fare to the training site. The employee then asked to take his annual leave beginning after the seminar ended, and his supervisor approved this request. If the employee had returned directly after the seminar concluded, he would have qualified for a half-fare price discount coupon. However, by combining official and personal business, the employee incurred additional expenses. The agency allowed the employee the constructive travel cost which represented the amount the employee would have incurred had he flown directly home after the seminar and therefore qualified for the discount. The employee, however, claimed that he was forced to cancel his super-saver fare reservation because of Government travel and that the discount coupon was not under his control, nor was he notified that it had been used to secure his air fare until after his return. Further, the employee claimed that he was ordered to attend the seminar by his supervisor and that, by attending, he forfeited 28 hours of annual leave. GAO held that, since the employee was required to travel to the training site for the Government and he was notified of that request before his departure, his travel was by an indirect route. Therefore, the employee was entitled to reimbursement of his actual expenses not to exceed what he would have incurred had he traveled directly round trip between his permanent duty station and the training site. Additionally, since the use of the coupon in this situation would have resulted in a savings to the Government, the agency was required to use the coupon. Further, the employee's annual leave may be restored since his leave was scheduled in advance and his supervisor's failure to make an exigency determination constituted an administrative error.