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B-225159 1 (1989-06-19)

handle is hein.gao/gaobadnmb0001 and id is 1 raw text is: I~au> The Comptroller General of the United States Washington, D.C. 208 Decision Matterof: Utility Costs under Work-at-Home Programs File: B-225159 Date: June 19, 1989 DIGEST In the absence of statutory authority, appropriated funds may not be used for items that are the personal expenses of an employee. Exceptions to this rule have been permitted where the item primarily benefits the government. IRS employees participating in a work-at-home program may not be reimbursed for the incremental costs of utilities associated with the residential work-place, because such costs cannot be said to primarily benefit the government. DECISION The Chief of the Fiscal Management Branch, North Atlantic Region, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) asks whether work- related utility costs incurred by certain IRS employees voluntarily participating in a work-at-home program, hereinafter referred to as a flexiplace program, may be reimbursed. The utilities involved are used to run government-furnished equipment and to illuminate, heat or air condition the residential work-place. If any of these costs are allowable, the IRS wants to know how they should be computed and whether such reimbursement is optional or mandatory. We conclude that absent legislation authorizing such expenditures, incremental utility costs associated with the residential work-place may not be allowed. BACKGROUND The IRS has been interested in the flexiplace concept for several years. In the middle 1980's the North-Atlantic Region experimented with a flexiplace program for approximately three years involving criminal investigators in New York City. These agents normally worked in the field near their homes. The IRS installed computers and dedicated telephone lines in their homes, where the agents wrote their reports and transmitted them to the IRS Office. IRS terminated the experiment about two years ago when it t€s- -6711

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