Board of Contract Appeals General Services Administration Washington, D.C. 20405 August 27, 1999 GSBCA 15026-RELO In the Matter of JACQUELINE WILLIAMS Jacqueline Williams, Grand Coulee, WA, Claimant. T. R. Lab, Manager, Operations Group, Finance and Accounting Services, Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior, Denver, CO, appearing for Department of the Interior. BORWICK, Board Judge. Claimant, Jacqueline Williams, an employee of the Department of the Interior (agency) in Grand Coulee, Washington, seeks reimbursement of rental car expense as part of her temporary quarters subsistence expense (TQSE) allowance. The agency allowed some of the rental car expense as en-route travel, but disallowed most of the expense because it determined that claimant used the car for daily transportation when she was at her new duty station. The agency concluded that under the Federal Travel Regulation (FTR), it could not pay local transportation expenses as part of the TQSE allowance. The agency correctly applied the FTR. Claimant, a computer specialist, was transferred by the agency from her position with the United States Army, in Heidelberg, Germany, to the Bureau of Reclamation, Grand Coulee, Washington. To accomplish the transfer, she flew from Frankfurt, Germany, to Spokane, Washington, which is eighty-five miles from Grand Coulee. An employee of the Bureau of Reclamation had sent claimant an e-mail message before her trip telling her that no agency employee would be able to pick her up in Spokane and advising her to rent a car and "submit the cost with your voucher. You'll need something to drive once you get here anyway." Claimant arrived in Spokane on November 8, 1998, rented an automobile from Avis, and then drove to Grand Coulee. According to the rental receipt, claimant returned the automobile to Avis at the Spokane Airport on November 21. Between November 8 and November 21, claimant drove the rental car 1302 miles. Claimant explained that she rented the car to drive from the Spokane airport to Grand Coulee, having been told that no one would be able to pick her up. She then kept the car for her daily commute when she could not find a convenient Avis return facility near Grand Coulee. Claimant admits that she kept the rental car until she purchased a new one. Claimant justifies her use of the rental car by her ignorance of regulation and by the inconvenience of having to return the car to the Avis facility in Spokane. Claimant sought reimbursement of the full rental car expense--$672.47-- as part of her TQSE reimbursement. The agency states that it reimbursed claimant for the use of the rental car for eighty-five miles for the trip from Spokane to Grand Coulee as allowable en-route travel mileage during claimant's trip from Frankfurt, Germany. The agency's disallowance document shows that the agency disallowed $624.43 of the rental car expense, thus appearing to have allowed $48.04 of rental car expense for the en-route travel mileage. Claimant says she was reimbursed only private official vehicle mileage, which she says amounted to $11.90, for the trip from Spokane to Grand Coulee. The agency's disallowance was correct. The FTR provides that employees may not be reimbursed for local transportation expenses as TQSE and there is no authority to pay them as such. 41 CFR 302-5.18 (1998); Ed Gonzalez, GSBCA 14602-RELO, 98-1 BCA 30,041. Although employees may be reimbursed for the cost of necessary transportation expenses for local business travel under Part 301-2 of the FTR, claimant has not established that she had used, or was authorized by the agency to use, the rental car for such purposes. The claimant's contrary arguments are not persuasive. Claimant is charged with knowledge of the regulations, and her ignorance of regulation and the inconvenience to claimant of having to return the rental car to Spokane does not enlarge claimant's TQSE entitlement under the FTR. The erroneous implied advice to claimant by e-mail from the agency's employee that claimant might be reimbursed for claimant's daily use of a rental car cannot bind the agency to pay when such payment would be unauthorized. James E. Black, GSBCA 14548-RELO, 98-1 BCA 29,876. __________________________ ANTHONY S. BORWICK Board Judge