Travel Expense Claims

Claims for reimbursement of travel expenses were submitted by criminal investigators of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) for travel to locations deemed necessary to conduct control and anti-smuggling investigations. The INS union submitted a request concerning the claims of several union members for travel expenses incurred while on offical business. Since this has been handled as a labor-relations matter, the agency was served with a copy of the union's submission, but has not responded. The employees were authorized to be reimbursed for actual daily subsistence expenses. A group reservation was made, and all employees were required to lodge at the same location for security of the detail and to coordinate the personnel involved. After the employees submitted claims for reimbursement for actual expenses, INS ruled that reimbursement was limited to less than the authorized per diem on the basis that the employees had lodged in a high rate area away from their duty areas. GAO held that employees should be reimbursed for actual subsistence expenses since the record indicated that official duties were performed; therefore, the stopover was not an intermediate stopover point. Also, applicable legislation permits reimbursement of actual subsistence expenses in similar situations. Accordingly, the claims for reimbursement for actual subsistence expenses during the temporary duty assignment may be certified for payment.