Request for Waiver of Indebtedness

A retired Air Force officer appealed a Claims Division denial of waiver of his debt to the United States. The debt arose due to the failure of Air Force personnel to make deductions in his retired pay while he was employed in a civilian capacity with the Federal Government. At the time that he accepted a career-conditional appointment with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Air Force asked NASA if he was exempt from the dual compensation provisions of Federal regulations. The Air Force was informed that he was not. However, through an administrative error, the information was not applied to his pay account, and he received overpayments of his retired pay for 3 years. In the officer's appeal, he contended that, during a phone conversation, an official at the Air Force Finance Center informed him that he was entitled to an exemption from the dual compensation provisions, and that it was no longer significant that his personnel office had not recommended the exemption. A telephone inquiry to an individual in the Finance Center was insufficient to establish that an exemption had been granted when, at an earlier date, the officer had been informed that he would not receive an exemption. The officer must be considered at least partially at fault in accepting the erroneous payments since he failed to request more than a verbal assurance of his exemption from the Finance Center. The action of the Claims Division denying the waiver was sustained.