BNUMBER: B-260771
DATE: October 11, 1995
TITLE: Bureau of Land Management - Availability of
Appropriations to Pay Expenses for Employees to Obtain a
Certified Government Financial Manager Designation
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Matter of: Bureau of Land Management - Availability of Appropriations
to Pay Expenses for Employees to Obtain a Certified
Government Financial Manager Designation
File: B-260771
Date: October 11, 1995
DIGEST
The Bureau of Land Management may not use its appropriation to
reimburse employees for the cost of obtaining a Certified Government
Financial Manager designation. A Certified Government Financial
Manager designation recognizes the credentials and proficiencies of
government financial managers meeting specified educational,
experience and ethics requirements. Just as appropriated funds may
not be used to cover the costs of obtaining professional licenses
necessary to qualify a government employee to do his or her job,
appropriated funds may not be used to cover the costs of obtaining
professional recognition of an employee's credentials.
DECISION
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) asks whether it may use
appropriated funds to reimburse employees for the fees charged by the
Association of Government Accountants (AGA) to receive a Certified
Government Financial Manager (CGFM) designation. As explained below,
we conclude that BLM's appropriation is not available for this
purpose.
On July 1, 1994 the AGA began to accept applications for the CGFM
designation. The program brochure explains that the program "is
specially designed to help meet the critical need for greatly
increased emphasis on the professional qualifications and stature of
government financial managers." The brochure goes on to explain that
the purpose of the CGFM designation is to recognize an applicant's
existing qualifications: "AGA urges you to further enhance your
credentials as a government financial manager by choosing to have your
proficiency recognized through professional certification . . . ."
The AGA advises prospective applicants that the CGFM designation
"offer[s] considerable benefits to you personally" as well as the
agencies served.
To obtain a CGFM designation, the applicant must satisfy the CGFM
initial education, experience, continuing professional education, and
ethics requirements and pay the requisite fee. The fee does not cover
the cost of any training. Membership in the AGA is not required to
obtain the CGFM certificate, and no AGA membership results from
receipt of a CGFM designation.[1] Further, as BLM points out, the
CGFM designation is not a state license (such as a Certified Public
Accountant designation) for an individual to engage in a state
regulated professional activity.
The BLM submission states that the need for qualified financial
management personnel is well-established and that the primary
beneficiary of the increased skills demonstrated by obtaining a CGFM
certificate is the federal government. BLM also states that the CGFM
designation is not a benefit transferable to the private sector.
Accordingly, BLM advocates allowing appropriated funds to be used to
reimburse government employees for the cost of obtaining a CGFM
certificate, even absent appropriation language specifically
authorizing such expenditures.
BLM has not identified any law that specifically authorizes the use of
appropriated funds for the expense in question. In such cases, the
question is whether BLM can treat the reimbursement of employees for
the expense of the CGFM designation as a "necessary expense" of its
operating appropriation. While we afford deference to an agency's
determination that an expense is necessary to accomplish the purpose
of its appropriation, such deference is not unlimited. The agency
must be able to articulate a reasonable nexus between the expenditure
and the official purpose served by the appropriation, consistent with
any statutes imposing restrictions on the use of appropriated funds
and informed by applicable decisions and principles of the accounting
officers of the Government.
It is a long-standing rule that individuals generally must bear the
cost of obtaining professional licenses as a personal expense. 22
Comp. Gen. 460 (1922); 46 Comp. Gen. 695 (1967); 61 Comp. Gen. 357
(1982); B-218964, Nov. 26, 1985; B-235727, Feb. 28, 1990 and cases
cited therein. We have consistently applied this rule to a variety of
professional occupations, even when the agency supports the employee's
efforts and the license is required for a position in the federal
service. E.g., B-248955, July 24, 1992 (agency may not pay
cost of attaining professional engineer certification); B-204215, Dec.
28, 1981 (agency may not reimburse employee for annual bar membership
fee). We have allowed an agency to reimburse an employee for the cost
of a license necessary to perform environmentally sensitive tasks such
as pesticide application or asbestos removal when Federal law
expressly requires the agency to comply with applicable state and
local environmental requirements. B-252467, June 3, 1994, 73 Comp.
Gen . However, that decision made clear that appropriated
funds are not available to cover licensing requirements of
professional personnel such as teachers, accountants, engineers,
lawyers, doctors, and nurses. Id.
The CGFM is not a professional license, as BLM points out, but a
professional recognition of a government employee's credentials and
experience as a financial manager. BLM states without explanation
that the differences between a CGFM and a professional license provide
an adequate basis to reimburse employees for the cost of a
designation. It is true that expenses to obtain the CGFM designation
do not fall within the literal reach of the rule prohibiting the use
of appropriated funds to pay the expense of obtaining a professional
license. However, BLM has not suggested how reimbursement of the
expense of obtaining recognition of an employee's educational and on
the job experience from a private professional association furthers an
official purpose. We view the CGFM designation as recognition of the
credentials and experience already possessed by the government
employee that benefits the employee by distinguishing the employee
from his peers and enhancing his reputation publicly. These benefits
are personal in nature. In the absence of an explanation of how the
use of its appropriations to cover this expense primarily benefits the
agency, we have no basis to conclude that this reimbursement of the
employee's expense of obtaining the CGFM designation is reasonably
necessary to carry out its mission.
Accordingly, BLM's appropriation is not available to reimburse
employees for the certification fees required by the AGA for the CGFM
designation.
/s/James F. Hinchman
for Comptroller General
of the United States
1. Appropriated funds are not available to pay membership fees in
societies or associations. 5 U.S.C. 5946.