BNUMBER:  B-270687
DATE:  December 26, 1995
TITLE:  [Letter]

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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 determines that (1) the agency is 
unable to use the ticket for official travel of another employee, and 
(2) the approval will not result in additional cost to the government.  
However, unless GSA promulgates such a change to its regulations, 
agencies may not use companion tickets for other than official travel.  
Since this is a matter within GSA's discretion, you may wish to 
contact GSA directly.

Sincerely yours,

/s/ Seymour Efros
forRobert P. Murphy
General Counsel

Enclosure

B-270687

December 26, 1995

DIGEST

An agency asks whether companion tickets ("Buddy Passes") given to the 
agency at no cost or for a nominal fee when tickets are purchased for 
official travel may be used by the employees' spouses, family, and 
friends if the companion ticket cannot be used for official travel.  
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.  Southwest Airlines, B-254858, Nov. 22, 1995; and 41 
C.F.R.  101-25.103-2(a) and 301-1.103(b) (1995).  Although GAO would 
not object to changing these regulations to permit such use under 
specified conditions, the regulations do not now permit the use of 
companion tickets for any purpose other than official travel.