REDUCED ROUND-TRIP RATES BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP57-00384R000400190168-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 5, 2001
• Sequence Number: 168
• Publication Date: February 13, 1950
• Content Type: MEMO

Approved For' Release 2006/11/05: SECRET-00384R000400190168-4.
NNW
13 February 1950
TO . Office of the General Counsel
THROUGH: Chief, S S S
FROM : Finance Division
SUBJECT: Reduced Round-trip Rates Between the United States and Foreign
Countries
1. The attached opinion of the Budget Officer is, of course, the
normal interpretation of the relevant portion of the Standardized Govern-
ment Travel Regulations. I, naturally, concur with this interpretation
under normal circumstances.
2. Reference is made to the Comptroller General's Decision'B-6L53 ,
Volume 26, pages 787 through 790. It appears to me that the decision em-
phasizes the fact that "official justification" negates the requirement to
purchase round-trip tickets whenever practicable and economical, and that
where there is a specific authorization or approval, it may be assumed that
the requirement has been satisfied.
3. In the case of this Agency, could not certain abnormal circum-
stances be determined of sufficient importance to constitute "official
justification"? Such determination would, of course, be a matter of
policy decision by the proper authority. Illustrations of the various
factors which might be considered in reaching such a policy decision
could include the following:
a. Curtailment of the period of absence from a foreign station
during periods of home leave. This is unusually important,
to this Agency, since in many cases no replacement employee
or absorbtion of duties by other employees is possible
during the period of absence. If this is a worthwhile ob-
jective, travel by air, round-trip or either way would be
beneficial.
b. The existence of actual economies in the form of reduced
tier diems to employees and dependents as between travel by
air and sea which more than offset any available economies
through the use of round-trip air transportation, and which
would be lost if the employee chose to travel by sea.
c. Recognition of the fact that during the abnormally-lengthy
period between the return of a traveler from a foreign post
for home leave, retraining and orientation and his return
to his foreign post, various changes could occur in the
Approved For Release 2006/11/05: I-RIP57-00384R000400190168-4
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health of the employee or his dependents, which would
make air travel a physical or mental hardship. Examples
might include sinus conditions, pregnancy, or the birth
of additional dependents.
I would appreciate your opinions along these lines, particularly
because they seem to have a bearing on an allied problem. A similar re-
quirement of the Standardized Travel Regulations pertains to the purchase
of through tickets on the original mode of travel, where an economy to
the Government can be achieved. This raises the serious problem of the
travel of employees by air to ports of embarkation on ships when through
travel to the ultimate destination by air is availableet a lesser cost
to the Government. Since this is an everyday occurence in this Agency,
an expedited reply is requested.
PW1 A
itezing le , Finance Division
Attachments
SECRET
Approved For Release 2006/11/05: CIA-RDP57-00384R000400190168-4