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B-222155 1 (1988-07-25)

handle is hein.gao/gaobadndr0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Crurt - Tlhe Comptroller General of .-e United States Washington, D.C. 20548 IDecision Matterof- Laurie S. Meade, Jr. - Official Travel - Per Diem - Shared Lodgings File: B-222155 Date: July 25, 1988 DIGEST 1. The Food and Drug Administration reduced the per diem rate authorized for a group of employees performing official travel to attend a training course, based on an agency policy of arranging for shared hotel accommodations to be made available to groups of employees when they are attend- ing training courses, as a means of reducing their lodging expenses. There is nothing inherently objectionable about this policy under the applicable laws and regulations, and the reduction of authorized per diem is consistent with the requirement of the Federal Travel Regulations that per diem rates be reduced when lodgings are available at a reduced cost. Hence, an employee who elected to have single accommodations as a matter of personal preference may not be allowed per diem at a higher rate on the basis of a theory that the shared lodgings policy is invalid. 2. Federal agencies are not required by law to establish identical maximum expense reimbursement rates for different employees performing the same or similar travel assignments, but reimbursement rates should be reasonably fixed under uniform policies applicable to all employees. Under this standard the Food and Drug Administration properly adopted a uniform policy of reducing per diem rates for employees on group training assignments when they are able to reduce their lodging expenses by sharing hotel accommodations, and of granting exemptions when room sharing is unavailable for a particular employee or would be unreasonable because of a medical problem or other factor. DECISION The question presented here is whether the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may reduce the per diem rate authorized for employees attending training courses based on a policy of arranging for the employees to share hotel accommodations at the training site so that they may reduce their lodging Q.~ncf . 7 ', i O~qq -

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