United States Geological Survey (USGS) -- Use of Appropriated Funds, B-286137, February 21, 2001

B-286137 Feb 21, 2001 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Prescription eyeglasses for employees requiring vision correction are personal items employees are expected to provide themselves and an agency may not use appropriated funds to pay for personal expenses. Film inspection involves rapidly scanning each frame of contractor supplied photography over a Richard Transparent Light Table equipped with a special lamp to search the film for anomalies or defects that are often small and subtle. The OSL operator's objective is to ensure that distortion and repeatability of the test pattern on the film is within acceptable standards. Indeed such is the clear import of the "necessary expense" rule. To determine whether proposed expenditures such as the eye examinations and prescription eyeglasses at issue here are permissible uses of the appropriation. View Decision Matter of: United States Geological Survey (USGS) -- Use of Appropriated Funds to Pay for Annual Eye Examinations and Prescription Eyeglasses File: B-286137 Date: February 21, 2001 DIGEST DECISION The Associate Chief for Operations of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) has asked for an advance decision on whether USGS may use appropriated funds to pay for annual eye examinations and purchase prescription eyeglasses for employees performing certain tasks related to the National Aerial Photography Program and the Optical Science Laboratory. For the reasons explained below, we conclude that USGS may pay for annual eye examinations, 5 U.S.C. Sec. 7901, but not for prescription eyeglasses for these employees. Background In 1998, USGS asked the Federal Occupational Health Office of the U.S. Public Health Service to evaluate the need for a vision certification program for the operators of the National Aerial Photography Program (NAPP) and the Optical Science Laboratory (OSL). The Public Health Service recommended that USGS should establish a visual certification program for operators and supply operators with prescription eyeglasses. /1/ USGS explains that the operators perform six tasks requiring visual acuity. /2/ Four of those tasks require either searching for fine detail or evaluating fine detail within a 16-inch viewing distance, i.e., the near viewing distance. Based on the Public Health Service's findings and to obtain a more uniform work product, USGS proposes to establish a visual certification program that includes paying for annual eye examinations and prescription eyeglasses for NAPP and OSL operators. During their workday, NAPP operators perform film inspection and coverage inspection tasks. Film inspection involves rapidly scanning each frame of contractor supplied photography over a Richard Transparent Light Table equipped with a special lamp to search the film for anomalies or defects that are often small and subtle. Operators must identify fine detail from a changing background to locate these anomalies and defects. This task occupies about 80 percent of the operator's workday. Coverage inspection involves orienting scanned film to a specific known landmark on the ground. The operator uses a transparent overlay with existing landmarks and matches landmarks on the overlay with corresponding landmarks on the film. This task requires identifying, focusing on and studying specific areas of each overlay and film. Operators spend approximately 20 percent of their workday on coverage inspection. OSL operators appraise the quality of lenses used by contractors and other agencies in aerial photography flights. To do this, OSL operators perform reading resolution and calibration test tasks that require visual acuity for near vision and searching for fine detail. The reading resolution task compares the resolution of the test pattern on the film with a test pattern on a wall chart. The operator views the film's test pattern through a microscope to identify the fine detail of the pattern, compares it to the pattern on the wall chart, and chooses the size of the film's test pattern. The operator requires visual focus of both near vision of 16 inches and intermediate vision of 32 inches. This task involves approximately 15 percent of the operator's workday. With respect to the calibration test, the OSL operator's objective is to ensure that distortion and repeatability of the test pattern on the film is within acceptable standards. The operator uses a binocular microscope connected to computerized measuring equipment and moves a sight line on the microscope over a target on the film, a task that requires identifying fine detail on the target. This task occupies 80 percent of the workday. USGS has concluded, in accordance with the Public Health Service's recommendation and in order to ensure a uniform quality of work, that it should maintain a standard for NAPP and OSL operators of 20/20 vision with emphasis on 20/20 visual acuity for near vision.