[Payment of Long Distance Telephone Bills Based on Estimates]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requested a decision as to whether it could pay a percentage of a long distance telephone bill based on an estimate of the number of official calls. NRC contended that, while many agencies make such payments based on estimates derived from statistical samples, it did not make enough long distance calls to make a statistical sampling feasible. GAO held that: (1) NRC could base the payments on estimates from past experience as long as it was confident that its system for verifying official calls was accurate; and (2) an erroneous administrative certification regarding official calls would not carry the same financial responsibility as an erroneous payment voucher certification. Accordingly, NRC was allowed to pay its telephone bill based on an estimate derived from past experience.