B-309715, National Transportation Safety Board--Insurance for Employees Traveling on Official Business, September 25, 2007

B-309715 Sep 25, 2007 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) improperly used its appropriated funds to purchase accident insurance for its employees on official travel. NTSB does not have an appropriation specifically available for such a purpose, and the expenditures cannot be justified as a necessary expense. Because NTSB has no appropriation available to purchase accident insurance, the payments NTSB made constitute violations of the Antideficiency Act. NTSB must report the violations to the President and Congress, with a copy of the report to the Comptroller General. View Decision B-309715, National Transportation Safety Board--Insurance for Employees Traveling on Official Business, September 25, 2007 Decision Matter of: National Transportation Safety Board—Insurance for Employees Traveling on Official Business File: B-309715 Date: September 25, 2007 DIGEST The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) improperly used its appropriated funds to purchase accident insurance for its employees on official travel. NTSB does not have an appropriation specifically available for such a purpose, and the expenditures cannot be justified as a necessary expense. Because NTSB has no appropriation available to purchase accident insurance, the payments NTSB made constitute violations of the Antideficiency Act. NTSB must report the violations to the President and Congress, with a copy of the report to the Comptroller General. DECISION The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has requested a decision under 31 U.S.C. sect. 3529 regarding whether NTSB properly used its appropriated funds to purchase accidental death and dismemberment insurance for its employees traveling on official business and, if not, whether such payments constituted violations of the Antideficiency Act, 31 U.S.C. sect. 1341. Letter from Steven E. Goldberg, Chief Financial Officer, NTSB, to David M. Walker, Comptroller General of the United States, Re: Request for Advisory Opinion Under 31 U.S.C. sect. 3529 Concerning Payment of Insurance Coverage for NTSB Employees, June 19, 2007 (Goldberg Letter). We conclude that NTSB's appropriation was not available to purchase such insurance and that NTSB's payments for the insurance violated the Antideficiency Act. Our practice when rendering decisions is to obtain the views of the relevant federal agencies. GAO, Procedures and Practices for Legal Decisions and Opinions, GAO-06-1064SP (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 2006), available at www.gao.gov/legal.htm. In this regard, NTSB provided us a legal memorandum detailing its views in this matter. Memorandum from Linda L. Lewis, Assistant General Counsel, NTSB, to Joseph G. Osterman, Managing Director (MD-1), NTSB, Insurance Coverage for NTSB Employees, May 25, 2007 (Lewis Memo), submitted with Goldberg Letter. BACKGROUND NTSB employees fly in official travel status on various types of commercial and government aircraft, both as ticketed and non-ticketed passengers, to transportation accident sites around the world. Goldberg Letter, at 1. In the aftermath of a 1996 crash of an Air Force airplane in Croatia, NTSB employees raised concerns about the extent of their insurance coverage when flying to accident scenes on official travel. Id. The employees were concerned that travel insurance incidental to the government travel card contract did not cover non-ticketed travel, that there was no Federal Tort Claims Act[1] right of recovery for an accident involving a United States government aircraft, and that there was likely no way to recover losses resulting from accidents involving foreign state aircraft. Id. at 2. To allay these concerns, NTSB purchased an accidental death and dismemberment insurance policy in 1998 for its employees who travel on official business and renewed it regularly until 2006.[2] Id. at 1. NTSB paid the policy from its –Salaries and Expenses— appropriation, which is available for –necessary expenses of the National Transportation Safety Board.— E.g., Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006, Pub. L. No. 109-115, div. A, title VI, 119 Stat. 2396, 2487 (Nov. 30, 2005). The policy provided insurance to all NTSB employees traveling domestically or internationally on official business, in any kind of vehicle, whether commercial or government owned. Goldberg Letter, at 2. In September 2006, NTSB extended the policy until September 2007; however, on the advice of counsel, NTSB did not pay the invoice for that year and canceled the policy retroactively to September 1, 2006. Id. NTSB counsel advised that NTSB's appropriation was not available to purchase accident insurance for NTSB employees. Lewis Memo, at 9--10.