[Decision Concerning BLM Employee's Entitlement to Reimbursement for Household Goods Moving Expenses]

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) requested a decision regarding a transferred employee's claim for reimbursement for household goods transportation and storage expenses. BLM advised that it paid for the: (1) shipment and commercial storage of the claimant's household goods at destination, since he had not found temporary quarters; (2) shipment of the household goods the employee chose to move to his temporary quarters, while the rest remained in storage; and (3) shipment of the household goods that had remained in commercial storage to his permanent quarters. BLM also advised that it denied the employee's claim for reimbursement for expenses he incurred in transporting the household goods that he had had in the temporary quarters to his permanent quarters, since the expenses exceeded the costs of transporting the goods in one lot from the former permanent quarters to commercial storage to the new permanent quarters. GAO held that the claimant: (1) was entitled to reimbursement for the shipment and storage expenses up to the cost of shipping and moving the goods in one lot; and (2) could claim the remaining costs of moving his household goods from temporary quarters to permanent quarters against his temporary quarters subsistence expense allowances. Accordingly, the claim was allowed.