TITLE:  Nuclear Regulatory Commission:ï¿½ Reimbursing Employees for Official, B-291076, March 6, 2003
BNUMBER:  B-291076
DATE:  March 6, 2003
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Nuclear Regulatory Commission:  Reimbursing Employees for Official, B-291076,
March 6, 2003

   Decision
    
    
Matter of:   Nuclear Regulatory Commission:  Reimbursing Employees for
Official Usage of Personal Cell Phones
    
File:            B-291076
    
Date:           March 6, 2003
    
DIGEST
    
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission may reimburse its employees for (a) the
actual costs of maintaining personal cell phone services that meet the
agency's minimum needs, and (b) the additional costs that may arise from
any official calls actually made or received on the employee's cell
phone.  Safeguards included in the agency's proposal (requiring monthly,
itemized service provider invoices, limiting claims to the expenses that
the NRC would otherwise pay for such services, and adjusting claims to
exclude the hidden costs of *free* services included in the service
provider's plan) provide adequate assurance that the reimbursements will
be limited to government-related calls.
DECISION
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has requested our decision on a
proposal to reimburse some of its employees for official access to and use
of their personal cell phones.  For the reasons given below, we conclude
that NRC's proposal is consistent with existing legal authority, and we
have no objection to it.
BACKGROUND
To respond to incidents involving nuclear materials at power plants or
other nuclear facilities, NRC has established teams, located across the
country, that it calls Incident Response Teams (IRT).  NRC requires IRT
staff to be available and accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365
days a year.  Presently, NRC provides government-procured cell phones to
the IRT staff to ensure their accessibility in the event of an emergency,
and for efficient and cost-effective conduct of other government business
when staff are away from the office and do not have ready access to the
Federal Telephone System.  NRC pays for activation and maintenance fees
for these phones, as well as the costs for calls made.  NRC also procures
supplies and support services for these phones, including replacement
phones, batteries, and belt clips.
In July 2001, NRC was considering a proposal from IRT staff that NRC,
rather than supplying staff with cell phones, reimburse staff for official
use of their personal cell phones and asked us if it could reimburse IRT
employees at a flat rate.  Letter from Anthony C. Rossi, Acting Director,
Division of Accounting and Finance, Office of the Chief Financial Officer,
NRC to Anthony Gamboa, General Counsel, GAO, July 3, 2001.  At that time,
we told NRC that we were already considering a similar request from the
Western Area Power Administration (WAPA); in October 2001, we transmitted
a copy to NRC of the WAPA decision, B‑287524, October 22, 2001.  In
our decision to WAPA, we stated that we had no legal objection to WAPA
reimbursing its employees for government use of employee cell phones. 
However, without specific statutory authority, WAPA could not provide
reimbursement on the basis of a flat rate, but only on the basis of actual
expenses incurred for government use.  We advised that *[w]here WAPA, or
other interested agencies, can document that the benefits of a flat rate
reimbursement plan outweigh agency costs, we would encourage the agency to
seek legislative authority from the Congress to implement such a plan.* 
B-287524, Oct. 22, 2001.  
NRC subsequently submitted a new reimbursement proposal for our
consideration.  Letter from Greg Benoit, Director, Division of Resource
Management and Administration, NRC, to Anthony Gamboa, General Counsel,
GAO, July 10, and Nov. 20, 2002.  NRC asserts that this proposal assures
reimbursement only of actual costs incurred for official business.  Under
this proposal, NRC would reimburse an IRT employee's costs of:
(a)  maintaining an activation plan that meets NRC's minimum needs,
including basic activation, local coverage, and voice mail capability; and
(b)  any additional charges that the employee incurred for official calls
actually made or received, including air time and roaming charges.
NRC will limit reimbursements for cell phone activation plans to amounts
which do not exceed the amounts that NRC would have paid had it procured
the services itself.  NRC will require the employee to include in a
reimbursement claim copies of monthly itemized invoices from the
employee's cell service provider.
DISCUSSION
Agencies may reimburse their employees for the actual costs of government
use of the employees' personal cell phones, including the costs associated
with official use of the equipment as well as the cost of individual calls
made.  B-287524, Oct. 22, 2001.  In order to prevent the misuse of
government resources for private business, any reimbursement plan must
include adequate safeguards to prevent abuse.  Id. B‑229406, Dec. 9,
1988.  For example, a monthly bill itemizing all phone calls and charges
is an acceptable safeguard.[1]  B-229406, Dec. 9, 1988.  A monthly
itemization permits the agency to verify which calls are personal and
which are official in nature.  Id.
NRC proposes the following safeguards.  To ensure that NRC reimburses only
for its use of the employee's equipment, and that it does not reimburse
the employee for the employee's cost of the equipment, NRC will (1)
reimburse the costs of the employee's activation plan at an amount no
greater than what NRC itself would have paid; and (2) adjust the costs of
an activation plan to deduct the value of so-called *free* telephones and
accessories, rationalizing that such equipment is not actually free but
factored into the plan's cost by the service provider.  To ensure that NRC
reimburses only for official calls, NRC will require the employee to
submit a monthly bill from the employee's service provider itemizing all
calls made that month.  We consider NRC's safeguards adequate to ensure
that government resources are applied to official, not personal, use.
CONCLUSION
We have no legal objection to NRC's proposal to reimburse its IRT staff
for the actual costs of maintaining personal cell phone services that meet
NRC's minimum needs, as well as for the additional costs that may arise
from any official calls made or received on the employee's cell phone. 
The safeguards NRC included in its proposal provide adequate assurance
that NRC's reimbursements will be limited to government-related calls.
/signed/
Anthony H. Gamboa
General Counsel
    

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   [1] For cell phone plans that do not itemize cost per call, pro-rating
government-related calls as a ratio to personal calls may prove an
acceptable safeguard as well, but will require an agency to impose
additional tracking and accounting procedures.  B‑287524 n.3, Oct.
22, 2001.