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B-270687 1 (1995-12-26)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptacga0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 




GAO             United States
                General Accounting Office
                Washington, D.C. 20548

                Office of the General Counsel





                B-270687


                December 26, 1995



                Mr. Robert Ortega
                Chief Administrative Officer
                International Boundary and Water Commission
                The Commons, Building C, Suite 310
                4171 North Mesa Street
                El Paso, TX 79902

                Dear Mr. Ortega:

                This responds to your October 26, 1995, letter requesting a Comptroller General's
                decision on the use of Buddy Passes, which you state are free companion tickets
                provided by your contract travel agency at no extra cost or in some cases at a
                nominal fee when tickets are purchased for official travel. You ask, when your
                office cannot use the companion ticket for official travel, whether you may
                authorize employees to use the companion ticket for travel accompanied by their
                spouses, family members, or friends. You note that the tickets are provided directly
                to the agency, and, therefore, are not like the previous cases dealing with whether
                an employee must turn over travel bonuses to the agency.

                Since the ticket that entitles the agency to the companion ticket is purchased with
                government funds, the companion ticket, no less than the original ticket, is the
                property of the agency and may be disposed of only in accordance with regulations
                issued by the General Services Administration (GSA). See our recent decision
                addressing this issue, Southwest Airlines, B-254858, Nov. 22, 1995, copy enclosed,
                and GSA's property management regulations and the Federal Travel Regulation,
                41 C.F.R. §§ 101-25.103-2(a) and 301-1.103(b) (1995). These regulations currently do
                not permit the use of companion tickets for any purpose other than official travel.
                Id.

                We noted in the Southwest Airlines decision that we would not object if GSA,
                consistent with the guidance in the decision, were to change its regulations to allow
                employees to use free companion tickets, where an appropriate agency official


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