Claim for Temporary Duty Allowance and Lodging

A request was made for a decision regarding the proper lodging charge for actual expenses for temporary duty to a high-cost geographical area. The question was whether a Department of Energy employee should be charged the cost of a hotel room as a part of his actual expenses where the hotel room was used both for his personal lodging and for interviewing candidates for employment. Three employees, including the claimant, rented individual rooms which were used for interviewing candidates and for personal lodging. Upon return, two of the employees, including the claimant, submitted travel vouchers claiming reimbursement for the room's rental costs as official business costs for conducting Government business. They made no claim for lodging expense under their authorized actual and necessary expenses. Upon presentation of receipts or explanation of a voucher, Federal regulations authorize reimbursement to an employee for the rental of rooms for official business. In prior decisions involving similar situations where the employees rented higher priced hotel rooms in which to conduct Government business, GAO held that only the charges in excess of those charged for single rooms available at the same hotel for lodging purposes could be paid for a rental of office space for Government business. The remainder of the room's rental charge was required to be paid by the employee as the cost of his personal lodging. Since in this case the reimbursement sought by the employee was for the normal single occupancy rate, there was no authority to reimburse him for any additional expense of the hotel room. The primary purpose of the employees' temporary duty assignment was the recruiting of new employees. If it were necessary to conduct interviews of prospective candidates, they could have, with proper approval, rented a hotel room in which to conduct the interviews. While GAO recognized that the maximum authorized by statute for per diem or actual expenses has not always covered all the expenses of an employee who must travel on temporary duty, the remedies lie with the employees to seek ways to reduce expenses. Accordingly, the reclaim voucher submitted was not certified for payment.