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                               April 4, 1997
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                             GSBCA 13694-RELO


                     In the Matter of LUTHER R. DIXON


     Luther R. Dixon, Springfield, VA, Claimant.

     G. A. Terrill, Chief, Travel Division, Defense Finance and
Accounting Service, Columbus, OH, appearing for Department of
Defense.

DeGRAFF, Board Judge.

     In 1995, Luther R. Dixon, an employee of the Defense
Commissary Agency, accepted a permanent change of station from Fort
Sill, Oklahoma to Fort Myer, Virginia.  In connection with the
move, the agency agreed to reimburse Mr. Dixon for sixty-five days
of temporary quarters subsistence expenses (TQSE).  

     On June 27, 1995, Mr. Dixon, his wife, and their three
children over twelve years old moved from their permanent quarters
to a hotel in Oklahoma.  They remained there for eleven days, until
July 7, 1995.  On July 8, the family began driving to Virginia. 
They arrived in Virginia on July 12, 1995, and stayed in hotels for
the remaining fifty-four days of the TQSE period. 

     On September 14, 1995, Mr. Dixon submitted a claim to the
Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) for reimbursement of
his TQSE.  The instructions for the claim form state:

     All expenses will be itemized and only actual expenses
     claimed.  Home meal cost will be accumulated and averaged
     for all meals prepared at home.

     Receipts are required for . . . any single expense
     exceeding $25.00 to include meal expense for one or more
     individuals.

For the first thirty days of the TQSE period, Mr. Dixon claimed a
total of $3,458.96 for lodging and $375.35 for other reimbursable
expenses.  For the remaining thirty-five days of the TQSE period,
Mr. Dixon claimed a total of $3,797.50 for lodging and $421.28 for
other reimbursable expenses. 

     For each of the sixty-five days of the TQSE period, Mr. Dixon
claimed $100 for breakfast, $125 for lunch, and $125 for dinner. 
He stated that all meals were commercial, and not home prepared. 
The total amount he claimed for meals was $22,750.  Mr. Dixon
stated that these amounts were true and complete.  Mr. Dixon did
not attach any receipts for any meals, and did not state that
receipts were unavailable.  

     DFAS reviewed Mr. Dixon's claim and told him that it could not
approve his claim for meals.  DFAS explained to Mr. Dixon that it
could only reimburse him for his actual meal expenses.  

     On September 26, 1995, Mr. Dixon resubmitted his claim.  This
time, he claimed $25 for each meal.  Mr. Dixon stated that his
expenses exceeded $25 per meal.  He again stated that all meals
were commercial and not home prepared.  He explained that, in
Oklahoma, his family ate at Red Lobster, Holiday Inn, and Asian 
restaurants, among others.  In Virginia, he said, his family ate at
McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Roy Rogers, Kentucky Fried Chicken,
Popeye's, restaurants in a shopping mall, Days Inn, and Asian 
restaurants, among others.  Mr. Dixon provided receipts for $180.14
for groceries; $142.92 was for groceries purchased during the first
thirty days of the TQSE period and the remaining $37.22 was for
purchases made during the final thirty-five days of the TQSE
period.  Mr. Dixon told DFAS that he had looked for other receipts
for groceries and meals, and that other receipts had been misplaced
or stolen.

     DFAS reimbursed Mr. Dixon for the $180.14 that he spent for
groceries.  Mr. Dixon spoke with a DFAS employee about his claim
and, on November 6, 1995, Mr. Dixon again asked DFAS to reconsider
its decision.  Mr. Dixon stated that his meal receipts had been
stolen.

     The DFAS employee who reviewed Mr. Dixon's request for
reconsideration spoke with him and asked whether he could provide
copies of any credit card receipts to support the amounts that he
claimed for meal expenses.  Mr. Dixon stated that he paid cash for
all of his meals.  On November 16, DFAS wrote to Mr. Dixon and
again denied his claim.  DFAS explained that it could reimburse
Mr. Dixon only for his actual and reasonable expenses and, except
for the $180.14 for groceries, DFAS did not believe that Mr. Dixon
had established what his actual and reasonable meal expenses were
during the TQSE period.  

     On November 27, 1995, Mr. Dixon asked DFAS to send his claim
to the General Accounting Office (GAO) for review, which DFAS did. 
On July 17, 1996, this claim and all others involving expenses
incurred by federal civilian employees for official travel and
transportation were transferred from GAO to the General Services
Board of Contract Appeals.  Legislative Branch Appropriations Act,
1996, Pub. L. No. 104-53,  211, 109 Stat. 514, 535 (1995);
Determination by Acting Director of the Office of Management and
Budget (June 28, 1996); Delegation of Authority from the Acting
Administrator of General Services (July 17, 1996).  The authority
to settle these claims has more recently been vested by statute in
the Administrator of General Services.  General Accounting Office
Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-316,  202(n), 110 Stat. 3826, 3843
(1996).

     We asked Mr. Dixon to provide information about the stolen
receipts.  We also asked whether he could reconstruct where he and
his family ate during the TQSE period.  Finally, we asked him to
provide whatever information he had to support the amount that he
actually spent for meals during the TQSE period.  

     Concerning the stolen receipts, Mr. Dixon said that "most of
[his] family was eating at different places" and one of his
daughters was collecting receipts.  She put the receipts in a
briefcase and someone stole the briefcase when Mr. Dixon and his
family moved from their temporary quarters to their permanent
quarters.  Mr. Dixon did not say that anything other than the
briefcase was stolen.  Mr. Dixon did not report the theft to the
police.  As for reconstructing where he and his family ate,
Mr. Dixon provided us with a list of restaurants (Red Lobster,
Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut,
Shoney's, Taco Bell, Denny's, Hardee's, Roy Rogers, Popeye's, Chi-
Chi's, etc.) where he says his family members ate.  Mr. Dixon did
not specify the dates that his family members ate at these
restaurants, and he did not identify which of his family members
ate which meals at which restaurants.  Mr. Dixon did not provide
any itemization of the amounts spent at these restaurants, or the
amounts spent per day or per meal.

     Mr. Dixon supplied records to establish that between June 28
and August 27, 1995, he and his wife purchased travelers checks for
$7,400 and withdrew approximately $11,275 in cash from their bank
accounts.  Mr. Dixon says that this is proof of the "cash [he]
withdrew for meals during [the] 65 days on TQSE."  We cannot tell
whether there is an overlap between the travelers checks and the
amounts of cash withdrawn from the bank, and we cannot tell whether
the travelers checks were cashed during the TQSE period. 




                                Discussion

     When an agency transfers an employee from one permanent duty
station to another, the agency shall reimburse the employee for the
subsistence expenses incurred by the employee and his family while
they occupy temporary quarters.  5 U.S.C.  5724a(1)(3) (1994). 
The Federal Travel Regulation (FTR) implements this statutory
provision. 

     The FTR provides that agencies shall reimburse employees "only
for actual subsistence expenses incurred provided these are . . .
reasonable in amount."  Employees must itemize their actual
expenses so that the agency can review the amounts spent daily for
lodging and meals.  Although the FTR does not require employees to
submit receipts for meals, the FTR permits agencies to prescribe
the manner in which employees must itemize actual expenses.  41 CFR
302-5.4 (1995).  

     According to the FTR, the maximum amount that DFAS could have
reimbursed Mr. Dixon for subsistence expenses during his first
thirty days in temporary quarters was the actual amount of expenses
he incurred, not to exceed $7,260 ($66/day for Mr. Dixon + $44/day
for his wife and each of his three children, for thirty days).  The
maximum amount that DFAS could have reimbursed Mr. Dixon for his
remaining thirty-five days in temporary quarters was the actual
amount of expenses he incurred, not to exceed $6,352.50 ($49.50/day
for Mr. Dixon + $33/day for his wife and each of his three
children, for thirty-five days).  41 CFR 302-5.4. 

     The Joint Travel Regulations (JTR) provide supplemental rules
that apply to Department of Defense civilian personnel.  These
rules, as they read when Mr. Dixon moved to Virginia, required an
employee to furnish receipts and supporting documentation with a
claim for reimbursement of TQSE.  Receipts were required for any
single expense of $25 or more, including meal expenses.  Required
supporting documentation consisted of a statement showing the cost
of each meal for each day, by date.  The statement was also
required to show where and by whom meals were eaten.  JTR C13008-E.


     In summary, according to the FTR, in order to be reimbursed
for his meal expenses, Mr. Dixon is required to establish that he
actually and reasonably incurred the expenses he claims.  In
addition, Mr. Dixon is required to itemize the amounts he spent for
meals.  The itemization required, according to the JTR, is a
receipt for any single expense of $25 or more, and supporting
documentation that contains specific information concerning each
meal.  Unless Mr. Dixon can fulfill these requirements, the
regulations do not require DFAS to reimburse him for any amount,
not even $25 per meal.  

     Mr. Dixon never established the actual amount that he paid for
meals during his TQSE period.  He never provided a daily
itemization of the actual expenses he incurred, showing who ate
which meals at which restaurants.  Mr. Dixon submitted two claims
to DFAS, one for $350 per day for meals and the other for $75 per
day for meals, but he never stated that either of these amounts
represents his actual expenses.

     The September 14, 1995 claim listed the same amount every day
for every meal, for a total of $350 per day.  When DFAS told
Mr. Dixon that he could be reimbursed only for his actual expenses,
he never said that he spent precisely $350 per day for meals, or
that the $350 figure was an average that was based upon amounts he
actually expended.  Mr. Dixon never said that the receipts
contained in the missing briefcase would have supported a claim for
$350 per day.  Mr. Dixon did not establish that he actually spent
$22,750 in cash for meals ($350 per day for sixty-five days),
because this exceeds the amount of cash and travelers checks that
he had available during the TQSE period, even if there is no
overlap between the cash and the travelers checks, if all of the
travelers checks were cashed during the TQSE period, and if
Mr. Dixon spent all of the cash and travelers checks for food and
nothing else.  Mr. Dixon never explained how he arrived at a figure
of $350, so we do not know whether this was a good faith estimate
of his actual expenses or whether this was only a guess. 

     The September 26, 1995 claim also listed the same amount every
day for every meal, for a total of $75 per day, but Mr. Dixon says
that this did not represent his actual expenses.  Mr. Dixon asks us
to assume that he spent more than $25 per meal, but we have no
basis for making such an assumption because, as explained above, we
do not know what Mr. Dixon actually spent for meals.  Eating in
restaurants can be expensive and Mr. Dixon claims that his family
ate all of their meals in restaurants, but the only receipts he
provided were for groceries, which is inconsistent with claiming
that all meals were eaten in restaurants.  In addition, even if
Mr. Dixon actually spent at least $25 per meal, reimbursing him for
$25 per meal would not be reasonable for the final thirty-five days
of his TQSE period, because it exceeds the maximum amount that
Mr. Dixon could be reimbursed under the regulations.  For those
days, the maximum TQSE for which he could be reimbursed was
$6,352.50.  Mr. Dixon claimed $4,218.78 for lodging plus
miscellaneous expenses and $37.22 for groceries, leaving $2,096.50
available for meal expenses.  Divided among thirty-five days, this
amounts to $59.90 per day, which is less than three meals per day
at $25 per meal.

     Mr. Dixon says that it must be obvious that he spent something
for meals during his TQSE period.  This is true.  However,
Mr. Dixon seems to read the JTR as saying that he is entitled to be
paid $25 per meal, simply because his family consumed meals during
the TQSE period.  This is not correct.  The statute and the
regulations establish a mechanism for reimbursing an employee for
actual and reasonable expenses, and do not establish an entitlement
to be paid regardless of expenses actually and reasonably incurred. 
Even though we do not doubt that Mr. Dixon's family ate meals
during the TQSE period, Mr. Dixon has not established what meal
expenses he actually and reasonably incurred and DFAS is not
required to pay Mr. Dixon either $25 per meal or any amount in
excess of the amount it has already paid to him.




                                   _______________________________
                                   MARTHA H. DeGRAFF
                                   Board Judge