GENERAL COUNSEL'S OPINION NUMBER 58-7

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-05844A000100070018-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 30, 2001
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: December 10, 1958
• Content Type: REGULATION

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GENERAL COUNSELS OPINION Nx.ER 58-7, DATED 10 DECEMBER 1958
An individual under military detail to the Agency may properly be
paid per diem in lieu of subsistence under the Joint Travel
Regulations and a supplemental per diem for representational
purposes under Agency Regulations provided the latter allowance.is
required for reasons of security, cover or operational efficiency.
TO CHIEF, FINANCE DIVISION
1. We have your memorandum of 3 November on the above subject
describing a situation in which a military detail traveling abroad
under the Joint Travel Regulations was authorized a supplemental per
diem for representational purposes under Agency Regulation
You question the propriety of this authorization, noting that e
Audit Staff has taken exception to it under
2. Paragraph 5h(l) of Regulation
"Military personnel assigned to the Agency shall be entitled
to that per diem allowance that is allowed by their parent military
organization. Civilian per diem allowances in lieu of military per
diem allowances may be authorized for military personnel only in
those instances 3n which security requirements, operational assignments,
or cover circumstances so require. However, no combination of
parent service entitlements and civilian entitlements shall be
authorized. (See 0) Letters of authorization and travel
orders shall be construed to authorize the applicable per diem
allowance of the parent service unless specifically stated otherwise."
Paragraph la of Regulation
"Military personnel serving with the Central Intelligence
Agency are entitled only to the pay, allowances, and other monetary
benefits to which they would be entitled were they serving their
parent service at the same post of assignment. However, detailed
military personnel may be authorized, at the discretion of this
Agency, travel, transportation, and OTHER allowance entitlements
of civilian personnel of the Agency, in lieu of the CORRESPONDING
entitlements of the parent service PROVIDED THAT NO COMBINATION OF
THESE LATTER PARENT SERVICE ENTITLEMENTS AND CIVILIAN ENTITLEMENTS
SHALL BE AUTHORIZED. The basic consideration in granting any of
the entitlements of civilian personnel is that the individual will
incur substantial personal expenses as the direct result of his
operational assignment or cover circumstances which he should not
be expected to bear from his military entitlements."
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Page 2 - General Counsel's Opinion No. 58-7
25X1A Further, paragraph 2b of Regulation I A=s testes:
"Military personnel serving outside the continental limits of the
United States under cover or operational circumstances which necessarily
result in the incurrence of living or quarters expenses in excess of
those considered normal to a military officer serving his parent
service at the same post of duty may be authorized any of the normal
or special allowances which would bb authorized a civilian engaged by
CIA for similar duties in lieu of the applicable military allowances.
Specific exclusions from this authority are the Foreign Post Differ-
entials, Territorial Post Differentials, and Separation and Transfer
Allowances." (Emphasis ours.)
3. The problem, as can be seen from the above, is reduced to a question
25X1A of whether "per diem" under 0 and "supplemental per diem" tinder0 25X1A
25X1A 0 are of the same substantive class of emoluments so that panient of one
under the Joint Travel Regulations and the other under Agency Regulations
would be a violation of the above-quoted prohibition of 25X1A
against combinations of "corresponding" civilian and military entitlements.
For this question we look not to the name applied to the emolument but to
its ultimate purpose.
4. Representation, the ens of personal prestige, may take the
form of modes of dressing, dining, traveling, or any of a host of other
attentions to the superficialities of the customs and needs of life. In
all of these, it is not the mode of the representation but the purpose of
it which gives it its essential character. For this reason, although
representational funds might be used to cover unusual expenditures for
clothing, food, means of conveyance, etc., they should not be viewed as
for expenditures for those particular types of activity but rather as sui
eneris for a unique purpose which is, not the satisfaction of the employee's
ordinary needs, but the satisfaction of the Agency's extraordinary need to
have the employee appear in a certain way in order to establish rapport with
persons to Thom this appearance is important, and which rapport contributes
to the accomplishment of the mission. Although supplemental per diem is in
the same idiom as per diem, we consider the purpose of t he two an fferent
as to make them not "corresponding" within the meaning of`1 ~ We 25X1A
think this view is strengthened by the fact that the Joint Travel Regulations,
Part H, paragraph 4350 et seg., provides for a special per diem which has a
rationale similar to that of the Agency's supplemental per diem under 0 25X1A
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0 The civilian per diem would correspond to the military per diem, and
the civilian supplemental per diems would correspond to the military supple-
mental per diem.
5. For the reasons above, we are of the opinion that a military detail
may be paid per diem (in lieu of subsistence) under the Joint gavel Re la-
tions and supplemental per diem (for representational purposes) under II
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simultaneously without violation of the requirements of band
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assuming, of course, that the allowance is required by circumstances
of security, cover, or operational efficiency.
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Page 3 General Counsel's Opinion No. 58-7
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6. In the instant case, if the officer certifies as to the actual
excessive subsistence expenditures and the reasons for incurring them,
and the amounts and the reasons are acceptable, and the other require-
ments of the appropriate regulations are met, he may die paid the
actual subsistence costs incurred, not-to exceed the maximum authorized.
LAWRENCE R. HOUSTON
General Counsel
CONFIDENTIAL.
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