MY DEAR MR. DONOVAN:

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-05844A000100160056-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 12, 2002
• Sequence Number: 56
• Publication Date: June 4, 1942
• Content Type: LETTER

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COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES 1 Lift ,hon of '?` .- i
WASHINGTON .- .S# ' .. :3:75w r2P. PK 25X1
B-26277
June 4, 1942 -
Coordinator of Information.
My dear Mr. Donovan:
I have your letter of May 21, 1942, as follows:
"I have the honor to request your decision as to whether this
office may be granted an exception in the application of the pro-
visions of paragraph 44 of Standardised Government Travel Regula-
tions as amended March 7, 1941 wherein it is stated in part that:
'The per diem in lieu of subsistence expenses will be held to in-
clude....transportation between places of lodging or where meals
are taken and places of duty'. The decision and the exception
ruling sought are conditioned upon the circumstances hereinafter
described.
"The peculiarities of the duties of certain employees of the
Office of the Coordinator are such that they are often charged with
the custody of expensive and unique equipment as well as materials of
extremely confidential import. It is necessary that the employees
maintain physical control over the items mentioned. It further
happens that the same employees in whose custody these materials are
entrusted must make short visits to places officially designated in
their duties, their hotel or place of lodging being used as a base for
such trips. These official excursions occur with frequency and it has
been discovered beyond a doubt that these trips are most expeditiously
completed by the use of local taxicab services. Apart from bare ex-
pediency, however., and of more importance from a standpoint of effi-
cient Government services are the following considerations:
Nl. The employees must usually transport equipment of unique
and valuable character such as cameras having special lenses, un-
duplicated film, etc. The safe handling of such equipment is of
extreme importance. If the travel were performed through commercial
facilities such as street cars or busses, substantial risks would be
encountered and the traveler would be subject to undesirable physical
exertion.
"2. Because of the physical characteristics of the property
custodianship, the property must be transported with the same frequency
as the traveler makes his trips.
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"3. Confidential materials such as documents, confidential
film, etc., while they do not present the problem of cumbersome-
ness present in the larger property items, are nevertheless of such
nature as to make use of crowded public conveyances very dangerous
and-very unadvisable.
"4. The making of the trips described; the transportation of
the properties; and the personal possession of confidential material
are individually and severally a part of the express duties of the
employees. They have no relationship whatever to the em to esr
RMESO conveniences and no relate to those expenses which
might be properly itemized with sus tence allowances.
"Taxicab travel similar to that described herein as pertaining
to employees in travel status is also necessarily performed by em-
ployees not in a travel status. It is requested that this related
problem oTallowable expense be embraced by your considerations.
"The necessity for the use of taxicabs has considerably in-
creased in certain localities due to conditions occasioned by the
war and the urgent nature of the activities of this organization.
It appears necessary that additional consideration be given to the
matter of providing adequate transportation facilities for the em-
ployees involved without requiring them'to bear the related costs
from personal funds.
"Inasmuch as the problems outlined above are of immediate
administrative concern, it is respectfully requested that your de-
cision be rendered at the earliest practicable date."
The Independent Offices Appropriation Act, 1942, approved
April 5, 1941, under the heading, "Ppnergency Fund for the President",
provides in pertinent part, as follows:
"To enable the President, through appropriate agencies of the
Government, to provide for emergencies affecting the national
security and defense and for each and every purpose connected there-
with,, and to make all necessary expenditures incident thereto for
any purpose for which the Congress has previously made appropriation
or authorization and without regard to the provisions of law regu-
lating the expenditure of Government funds * * * and any waiver here-
under of the provisions of any law regulating such expenditure or
such mt shall not be exercise
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allocation to such agency or subsequent action of the President in
c nno `at on er
i
rm
ts any suc ver to a availed o ;
:r , * *. (Underscoring supplied.
The President, by a series of allocation letters, has made
some of the funds thus appropriated available to you as Coordinator
of Information for use in carrying out the functions and duties pre-
scribed in Presidential Order of July 11, 1941-by-which the office
of Coordinator of Information was established. In Allocation Letter
No. 42-34 of December 8, 1941, by which $3,162,786 was made available
to your office, it is provided that said funds may be used, among
other things, for
"* * * travel expenses, including (1) actual transportation expenses
and not to exceed $10 per diem in lieu of subsistence and other
expenses of persons serving as advisers while away from their homes
without other compensation from the United States, and (2) travel
expenses outside the United States without regard to the Standardized
Government Travel Regulations and the Subsistence Expense Act of
1926 as amended, and Section 901 of the Act of June 29, 1936 (49 Stat.
2015); * * *"
Similar provisions are incorporated by reference in subsequent alloca-
tion letters dated March 3, March 20 and May 30, 1942.
It is particularly to be noted from the above-quoted excerpt
from the letter of December 8, 1941, that the Standardized Government
Travel Regulations, and the Subsistence Act of 1926, as amended, are
made inapplicable only in the case of "travel expenses outside the
United States." When this provision is considered in the light of
the express stipulation in the Independent Offices Appropriation Act,
1942, quoted above, that in the use of such funds no waiver of pro-
visions of law generally applicable in connection with expenditures
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of public funds shall be exercised by any agency "unless the alloca-
tion to such agency or subsequent action of the President in connec-
tion therewith permits any such waiver to be availed of", the con-
clusion appears inescapable that travel expenses of employees of
your agency in the United States are governed by the above-mentioned
Government travel laws and regulations upon the same basis as other
employees of the United States. That being the case there is no
authority in this office to grant "an exception" in the application
of the provisions of paragraph 44 of Standardized Government Travel
Regulations to employees of your office as requested in the first
paragraph of your letter. In other words, if taxicab travel upon the
basis, and for the purposes, outlined in your letter does not con-
stitute a reimbursable expense item in the case of Government em-
ployees generally, it does not constitute a reimbursable item in the
case of employees of your office.
There remains for consideration the question whether, under
existing law, Government employees may be permitted to travel by
taxicab under circumstances such as those presented in your letter,
and receive reimbursement therefor in addition to their usual per
diem allowance.
Paragraph " of the Standardized Government Travel Regulations
provides as followss
"Definition.--The per diem in lieu of subsistence expenses will
be held o c ude all charges for meals; lodgings; personal use of
room during daytime; baths; all fees and tips to waiters, porters,
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baggagemen, bell boys, hotel maids, dining-room stewards and others
on vessels, and hotel servants in foreign countries, in connection
with subsistence and transportation; telegrams and telephone calls
reserving hotel accommodations; laundry; cleaning and pressing of
clothing; fans and fires in rooms; transportation between laces
of 12Wng! or where meals are taken and ces or dLAZ. (See pars.
erscor g supplied*)
bile it is clear from the above-quoted provision of the travel
regulations that the usual transportation expenses incurred by an
employee in a travel status in going from place of lodging, or where
meals are taken, to place of duty are included in his per diem allow-
ance, attention is invited to the special provisions relating to
transportation as contained in paragraphs 8 (b) and 11 of the Standard-
ized Government Travel Regulations, as follows:
>8? * *
"(b) Where the nature and location of the work where temporarily
stationed are such that meals and lodging can not be procured there,
and the daily travel required to procure subsistence at the nearest
available place is not such as made by the public generally for that
purpose, nor performed for the personal convenience of the traveler,
the expense thereof will be considered as necessary transportation
not incidental to subsistence. A full statement of the necessity
for such daily travel should accompany the expense account.
011. Special conveyances - .--The hire of boat, automobile, air-
craft, livery, or.o er special conveyance will be allowed only when
no public or regular means of transportation are available or when
such regular means of transportation cannot be used advantageously
in the interest of the Government, in which case a satisfactory ex-
planation must accompany the account. (See par. 83 (e).)"
It will thus be seen that not all taxicab travel-even between
places of lodging or where meals are taken and places of duty-is
required to be regarded as within the per diem allowance. In other
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words, although a taxicab fare between place of lodging or where
meals are taken and place of duty generally is to be regarded as an
item of subsistence or incident thereof which is covered by an em-
ployee's per diem, nevertheless where it is necessary in the interest
of the Government for the employee to take with him, while traveling
between place of lodging or where meals are taken and place of duty,
heavy and bulky Government-owned equipment, the use of which is re-
quired in the performance of his officialduties,._the taxicab fare
to transport the equipment may be regarded as an item of transporta-
tion-not chargeable to per diem in lieu of subsistence. Of course,
the transportation of such equipment must be in response to an actual
Government need, such as safety, secrecy, etc., and not for the per-
sonal convenience or preference of the employee. In such exceptional
cases transportation by special conveyance would appear to be justi-
fied upon the ground that "regular means of transportation can not be
used advantageously in the interest of the government" within the
meaning of paragraph 11, supra. Attention is invited, however, to the
requirement in paragraph 11 that when travel of this nature is per-
farmed "a satisfactory explanation must accompany the account", and
the employee should accordingly be in a position, in all such cases,
to establish that an actual need existed for travel by special con-
veyance.
The foregoing answers considerations numbered 1, 2, and 4, in
your letter, supra.
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With reference to consideration numbered "3", the fact that
an employee carries with him confidential documents, film, etc.,
not of unusual weight or size may not be regarded as justifying
special transportation-except in instances -where the existence of
exceptional circumstances are established, as for example where it
is definitely shown that the safety of doouments, etc., was subject
to a jeopardy if usual public conveyances were used which did not
exist if special conveyance such as a taxicab were used. In such
cases the burden would be upon the employee to establish affirmatively
the need for such special conveyance. In that connection,, it was
stated in decision of July 29, 1938, 18 Comp. Gen. 106, 108, that:
"It has long been held that taxicabs may not be substituted for
cheaper means of transportation when available unless the Govern-
ment business could not be satisfactorily performed by such means
of transportation. See A-57680, October 15, 1934. The question
here appears whether the evidence furnished in support of the pay-
ments made or proposed to be made for taxicab transportation may
be accepted as showing the official necessity for such transportation
instead of leas expensive public transportation facilities usually
available."
Taxicab travel for the special purposes above outlined would
appear to be available upon the same basis, and subject to the same
restrictions, whether the employee is or is not in a travel status-?
the incurrence of any such cost being authorized under the special
provisions of paragraph 11 of the Standardised Governmmnt Travel
Regulations rather than under the travel status "per dies in lieu of
subsistence" provision of paragraph 44.
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Referring to the penultimate paragraph of your letter., there
is no existing legal basis upon which it may be concluded generally
that Government employees may be spared the inconvenience or ad-
ditional expense in going to or from their homes or lodgings from
and to their place of duty because of the crowded conditions of
public transportation systems caused by the war emergency.
Respectfully,
Comptroller General
of the United States.
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