[Claim for Loan Origination Fee]

A Corps of Engineers finance and accounting officer requested an advance decision as to whether an employee was entitled to be reimbursed for a lump-sum origination fee which he paid for the preparation of loan documents when he purchased a residence at his new duty station. The Corps stated that reimbursement was allowed only for those parts of a lump-sum loan origination fee that were shown by an itemized list not to be finance charges, but the employee could not produce such a list. GAO stated that a recent change in Federal regulations specifically singled out such fees as reimbursable to employees who were transferred but that the change was effective after the date on which this employee was transferred. Accordingly, the employee was not entitled to reimbursement.