BNUMBER:  B-260895
DATE:  February 22, 1996
TITLE:  John H. Skinner

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Matter of:John H. Skinner

File:     B-260895

Date:February 22, 1996

DIGEST

1.  An employee who performed temporary duty travel rented an 
apartment at the temporary duty site and was required to pay a tenancy 
fee as a move-in fee.  That expense may be reimbursed as a 
nonrefundable lodging cost under sections 301-7.1(c)(1)(i) and 
301-7.14(a)(1) of the Federal Travel Regulation.  Valerie E. Taylor, 
B-257744, Feb. 9, 1996.

2.  An employee who performed temporary duty travel used his 
government credit card to pay for his lodging.  He was charged a 
credit card fee by the landlord equal to 5 percent of the rental 
charge.  Section 301-9.1(e) of the Federal Travel Regulation (1994) 
authorizes expenses not enumerated in sections 301-9.1(a) through (d) 
to be reimbursed when necessarily incurred by the traveler while 
transacting official business.  Since section 301-15.44 of the Federal 
Travel Regulation directs employees to use government issued credit 
cards "to the maximum extent possible," and the use was for the 
benefit of the government, the employee may be reimbursed the credit 
card fee.

DECISION

This decision responds to a request from an authorized certifying 
officer, National Finance Center, United States Department of 
Agriculture (USDA),[1] concerning the entitlement of an employee to be 
reimbursed a tenancy initiation fee and a credit card fee incident to 
the performance of long-term temporary duty in 1994.  We conclude that 
both expenses are reimbursable under the Federal Travel Regulation 
(FTR), for the following reasons.

Mr. John H. Skinner, an employee of the USDA, Forest Service, 
stationed in Nevada City, California, was assigned to long-term 
temporary duty in San Francisco, California, in May 1994.  He rented 
an apartment on a month-to-month lease at a cost of $2,000 a month.  
Besides the rent, he was charged a security deposit of $200 and a 
nonrefundable tenancy fee of $100.  He also was charged a credit card 
fee equal to 5 percent of the total rental charge ($115) because he 
paid for his lodging with his government credit card.

Mr. Skinner's travel expenses were reimbursed except the tenancy fee 
and the credit card fee.  The National Finance Center disallowed those 
two items because they could not find any provision in the Federal 
Travel Regulation (FTR) which would allow payment.

OPINION

In our decision Valerie E. Taylor, B-257744, Feb. 9, 1996, we 
considered the issue of reimbursing an employee who incurred a 
"tenancy fee" while performing temporary duty travel under similar 
circumstances.  We ruled that a tenancy fee expense may be treated as 
a lodging cost under the provisions of sections 301-7.1(c)(1)(i) and 
301-7.14(a)(1) of the FTR.[2]  Therefore, Mr. Skinner may be 
reimbursed that expense as well.

Concerning the credit card fee imposed on Mr. Skinner, section 301-9.1 
of the FTR[3] enumerates in subsections (a) through (d) various 
miscellaneous expenses that may be reimbursed an employee while 
performing official business.  Subsection (e) thereof, authorizes 
agencies to approve other miscellaneous expenses not enumerated in (a) 
through (d), when in the agency's judgement those expenses were 
"necessarily incurred by the traveler in connection with the 
transaction of official business."  We have distinguished between 
miscellaneous expenses incurred by an employee not enumerated in 
subsections (a) through (d) which inure to the employee's personal 
benefit and those expenses that inure to the government's benefit.  We 
have held that where an employee incurs a miscellaneous expense 
incident to performing temporary which does not directly benefit the 
government, the employee may not be reimbursed that cost under section 
301-9.1(e) of the FTR.[4]

Government credit cards are issued to individual employees under 
authority of section 301-15.44 of the FTR.[5]  Subsection (c)(1) 
thereof provides that the charge card shall only be used to charge 
expenses incurred in connection with official travel and directs that 
the employee "shall use the charge card to pay for official travel 
expenses to the maximum extent possible."  That subsection also 
provides that the employee shall be reimbursed for all authorized and 
allowable travel and transportation expenses, including, for example, 
charges imposed for making ATM withdrawals.

In the present case, the fee charged Mr. Skinner was imposed solely 
because he used his government issued credit card to pay for his 
rental charges.  In view of the language of the FTR that directs that 
the credit card be used to the maximum extent possible, and since he 
incurred the charge while performing official travel for the 
government's benefit and it did not inure to his benefit, the agency 
may reimburse Mr. Skinner for the $115 charged for use of the card.

/s/Seymour Efros
for Robert P. Murphy
General Counsel

1. Ms. Sandra S. Williams-Reference FSD-1 RJP.

2. 41 C.F.R.  sec.  301-7.1(c)(1)(i) and 301-7.14(a)(1) (1995).

3. 41 C.F.R.  sec.  301-9.1 (1995).

4. Anthony B. Queern, B-247084, Aug. 6, 1992 (renters insurance); 
Patricia A. Pierce, B-246829, May 18, 1992 (child care); and D. Jan 
Black, B-247345, May 12, 1992 (increased health care cost).

5. 41 C.F.R.  sec.  301-15.44 (1995).