[Decision Concerning BLM Employee's Entitlement to Reimbursement for Relocation Expenses]

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) requested a decision regarding a transferred employee's claim for full reimbursement of mileage and per diem expenses his wife and one dependent child incurred while performing separate relocation travel. BLM advised that it: (1) initially authorized the claimant to travel by personally owned vehicle (POV) with his wife and one dependent child; (2) initially authorized the claimant's other dependent child to travel by air at a later date; (3) amended the authorization to allow the claimant's wife and one dependent child to travel by POV at a later date; and (4) reimbursed the claimant's wife's expenses at 75 percent of the full per diem rate, based on its policy restricting the reimbursable transport of POV to one per family. GAO held that the claimant was entitled to full reimbursement for his wife's relocation expenses, since: (1) BLM authorized the separate travel; and (2) the separate travel did not occur on the same date or along the same routes. Accordingly, the claim was allowed.