BNUMBER:  B-275828.2
DATE:  January 28, 1997
TITLE:  [Letter]

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B-275828.2

January 28, 1997

Mr. Raymond D. Asedo
818 Pier View Way
P.O. Box 207
Oceanside, CA  90249-0207

Dear  Mr. Asedo:

This is in response to your letter dated December 3, 1996, with 
enclosures,  requesting that the Comptroller General waive the time 
limitations for filing claims provided by 31 U.S.C.  sec.  3702.  You ask 
that we waive the time limitation so that you may receive payment for 
military retired pay for 3 months in 1987 for which you received 
checks from the U.S. Marine Corps but which you failed to negotiate.  
As explained below, we may not comply with your request.

You recently discovered the three checks in question, each in the 
amount of $922.55, dated in March, April, and May 1987, respectively, 
in your safe after your secretary misplaced them.  Copies of 
correspondence enclosed with your letter show that in July 1996, you 
forwarded the checks to the Defense Finance and Accounting Center 
(DFAS), asking that replacement checks be issued.  However, by letter 
dated November 13, 1996, DFAS, Kansas City Center, advised Congressman 
Ron Packard, who had inquired about the matter on your behalf, that 
reissuance of the checks is barred by 31 U.S.C.  sec.  3702(c), which 
provides that any claim on account of a Treasury check shall be barred 
unless it is presented to the agency that authorized issuance of the 
check within 1 year after the date of issuance.  While this 1-year 
limitation does not affect the underlying obligation for which the 
check was issued, a claim for the amount due based on the underlying 
obligation is subject to 31 U.S.C.  sec.  3702(b), which currently provides 
that the claim must be received by the official responsible for 
settling the claim or the agency that conducts the activity from which 
the claim arises within 6 years after the claim accrues.[1]  As DFAS 
advised, since your claims for retired pay for March, April, and May 
1987 were not filed within 6 years of those dates, the claims are 
barred by section 3702(b).

In addition, however, DFAS advised Congressman Packard that a recent 
amendment to 31 U.S.C.  sec.  3702 authorizes the Comptroller General, 
under certain conditions, to waive the time limitations prescribed in 
subsections 3702(b) or (c) upon request of the Secretary of the 
service concerned.  You request that the Comptroller General grant 
such a waiver so that you may receive the retired pay in question.  

The authority to waive the time limitations to which you refer is 
contained in    subsection (e), added to 31 U.S.C.  sec.  3702 by section 
608 of the National Defense 
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997.[2]  This authority is to be 
exercised "upon request of the Secretary concerned," and it applies 
only to claims "for pay or allowances provided under title 37" of the 
U.S. Code.  We have not received a request from the Secretary of the 
Navy[3] for such a waiver in your case.  In any event, your claim for 
retired pay is not a claim for pay or allowances under title 37 (Pay 
and Allowances of the Uniformed Services); it is a claim for retired 
pay which arises under title 10 of the U.S. Code.  See 10 U.S.C. chs. 
61-71.  Therefore, the authority provided by subsection 3702(e) to 
waive the time limits prescribed by subsections 3702(b) or (c) would 
not apply to your claim. 

For the reasons explained above, we may not take the action you 
request.

Sincerely yours,

Robert P. Murphy
General Counsel

B-275828.2

January 28, 1997

Digest

The Comptroller General pursuant to 31 U.S.C.  sec.  3702(e) (added by  sec.  
608 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997), 
may not waive the time limits for filing a claim prescribed by 31 
U.S.C.  sec.  3702(b) or (c).  Request of retired Marine may not be granted 
because no request for such a waiver has been received from the 
Secretary of the Navy, as required by section 3702(e), and in any 
event, this waiver authority only applies to claims for pay and 
allowances "provided under title 37" of the U.S. Code, and the 
Marine's claim is for retired pay under title 10 of the U.S. Code.

1. Congress recently amended this statute to eliminate the Comptroller 
General's role in the receipt and settlement of claims and to 
substitute the language referred to above.  See Pub. L. No. 104-53,  sec.  
211, 109 Stat. 535 (1995), which transferred the Comptroller General's 
claim settlement authority under section 3702 to the Director of the 
Office of Management and Budget, effective June 30, 1996, and Pub. L. 
No. 104-316, Title II, 110 Stat. 3826 (1996), which amended the 
language of section 3702 to reflect the transfer of this authority. 

2. Pub. L. No. 104-201,  sec.  608, 110 Stat. 2542, Sept. 23, 1996.

3. The Secretary concerned with respect to matters concerning the 
Marine Corps is the Secretary of the Navy.  37 U.S.C.  sec.  101(5).