Board of Contract Appeals
                 General Services Administration
                      Washington, D.C. 20405


                     _______________________

                       November 26, 2002  
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                         GSBCA 15864-RELO


               In the Matter of ANTONIO R. CORTEST


     Antonio R. Cortest, APO Area Europe, Claimant.

     Shivaun White, Europe District, United States Army Corps of Engineers, APO Area
Europe, appearing for Department of the Army.

PARKER, Board Judge.                                        

     When Antonio R. Cortest was transferred to Seoul, Korea, his employer, the United
States Army Corps of Engineers, paid to Mr. Cortest $71,975 in advanced living quarters
allowance (LQA) to cover two years' rent.  As per local custom, Mr. Cortest was required
by his lease to pay the two years' rent in advance in Korean Won.  He converted the dollars
into Won and paid the sum to the landlord.  One year into the lease, the agency transferred
Mr. Cortest to Germany.  The employee recovered from his landlord an amount of money
in Won, 41,722,000 Won, commensurate with the portion of the two-year term for which
he would no longer be leasing his dwelling.  He then converted this sum to dollars and
returned it to the agency as repayment of advanced LQA.  As a result of a decline in the
exchange rates between the dollar and the Won, the 41,722,000 Won converted to
$30,974.02, leaving a shortfall of $6658.59.  Mr. Cortest reimbursed the agency for the LQA
advance in the amount of $30,974.02, and the agency determined that Mr. Cortest was
indebted to the United States in the amount of $6658.59.  Mr. Cortest has asked the Board
to review the Corps' decision as to the amount of indebtedness.

     The Corps has requested that the Board dismiss this case since it concerns a claim for
LQA, which is outside the Board's jurisdiction and within the jurisdiction of the Office of
Personnel Management (OPM).  The agency is correct.  As this Board has consistently
recognized, "LQA is not an expense of travel, transportation, or relocation; since it is an
allowance which accrues to an employee after he has traveled to a place and relocated there,
it is more properly viewed as a species of compensation."  Donald Guenther, GSBCA
14032-RELO, 97-1 BCA   28,795, at 143,640; see also Carmon L. Woodley, GSBCA
13706-RELO, 97-1 BCA   28,861.  Claims regarding LQA for civilian employees are not
heard by the Board, but are referred, as are claims for compensation, to OPM.  Woodley;
Guenther.

     Accordingly, this claim is dismissed and is transferred to OPM for resolution.




                                   ______________________
                                   ROBERT W. PARKER         
                                   Board Judge