Board of Contract Appeals
                 General Services Administration
                      Washington, D.C. 20405

                                        
                       ____________________

                           July 6, 2006
                       ____________________

                         GSBCA 16845-RELO

                 In the Matter of JOANNE M. BARRY

     Joanne M. Barry, Alexandria, VA, Claimant.

     Shirley L. Autry, Deputy Director, Finance, United States Army Corps of Engineers
Finance Center, Millington, TN, appearing for Department of the Army.

HYATT, Board Judge.

     Claimant, Joanne M. Barry, a civil engineer employed by the United States Army
Corps of Engineers, has asked the Board to review the agency's denial of her claim for
reimbursement of temporary quarters lodging expenses incurred in connection with her
relocation from the Corps' New England Division in Massachusetts to the Corps' Institute
for Water Resources, located in Alexandria, Virginia.  

                            Background

     Ms. Barry's travel orders were issued on September 27, 2005, with a report date at her
new duty station of October 4, 2005.  In connection with the transfer, she was initially
authorized sixty days of actual expense temporary quarters subsistence expenses (TQSE). 
For the first two months that she resided in temporary quarters, Ms. Barry stayed in
conventional temporary lodging in Alexandria with receipts provided by Sojourn Housing. 

     It cost nearly $3000 per month to rent temporary quarters from Sojourn.  When the
Corps authorized an additional thirty days of TQSE for December 2005, Ms. Barry
investigated more economical options.  She located a listing through a web service for the
sublease of a room in another apartment in Alexandria, Virginia.  She was able to sublet this
room from the tenant, Sona Isharani, for $1100 a month, with the right to terminate the
sublease upon thirty days notice.  Ms. Barry also states that Ms. Isharani had rented the room
previously to another tenant.

     When claimant submitted a request for reimbursement of the temporary lodging
expenses she incurred in December 2005, the Corps asked her to provide a more detailed
receipt.  In response to this request, she provided her bank records and a receipt from Ms.
Isharani, who  confirmed in writing that she had received a payment of $1100 in rent from
Ms. Barry for December 2005 and further stated that she was not related to Ms. Barry nor
was she acquainted with Ms. Barry prior to subletting space in the apartment to her. 

     The Corps rejected Ms. Barry's claim for reimbursement of this lodging expense,
citing a provision of the Joint Travel Regulations (JTR's) that proscribes reimbursement of
lodging expenses for accommodations provided by friends or relatives or non-conventional
sources.

                            Discussion

     The Corps relies on JTR C4555.B.3 and B.4 as the justification for disallowing
claimant's lodging expenses for December 2005.  These provisions, which mirror and
supplement their counterparts in the Federal Travel Regulation (FTR), provide, respectively,
that "[r]eimbursement of lodging cost when staying with friends or relatives is not
authorized" and that "[t]he cost of non-conventional commercial facilities is allowed," but
only under appropriate circumstances.  JTR C4555.B.4 defines non-conventional facilities
as including college dormitories, similar facilities, and rooms generally not offered
commercially that are made available to the public by area residents in their homes.  See
generally 41 CFR 301-11.12 (2005).  The comparable FTR provision permits reimbursement
of non-conventional lodging expenses when conventional lodging is unavailable or in short
supply because of an influx of attendees at a special event.

     The Corps appears to have identified these two provisions because Ms. Barry's
transaction does not clearly fall under conventional lodging or Government quarters, which
are routinely approved for reimbursement.  Here, Ms. Barry dealt with a private, rather than
commercial, source in obtaining her accommodations for December 2005.  The Board has
noted, in a recent decision issued on this subject, that:

          The analysis does not necessarily end here, however. In cases
          involving similar issues, the Board has observed that the
          underlying concern when an employee secures lodging from a
          private source is "whether the expenses claimed were actually
          spent for the lodgings or were merely transfers of money
          arranged for the purpose of supporting a claim against the
          Government and thereby enriching both the employee and the
          host." Guy E. Merrier, GSBCA 13795-RELO, 97-1 BCA 
           28,925; accord Matthew D. Murphy, GSBCA 16326-RELO,
          04-1 BCA   32,572; Donald Mixon, GSBCA 14957-RELO, 00-1
          BCA   30,606 (1999). Thus, the Board has upheld the agency's
          disallowance of payments when it appeared the transaction was
          not conducted at arm's length.  See, e.g., Javier R. Hernandez,
          GSBCA 15338-TRAV, 00-2 BCA   31,139 (room rented from
          brother not reimbursable when brother does not routinely rent
          out rooms in his home).  On the other hand, if a room is rented
          from a stranger who has advertised its availability, this
          evidences a business, rather than personal, relationship, and the
          expense may be reimbursed. Michael S. Knezevich, GSBCA
          14398-TRAV, 98-1 BCA   29,607.
  
Theresa E. Kanter, GSBCA 16670-TRAV, 06-1 BCA   33,224.  

     Ms. Barry has provided a receipt for the rent paid, and her own statement, as well as
Ms. Isharani's signed, written confirmation that this was a business transaction and that there
was no prior personal relationship between the two.  In addition, Ms. Barry has stated that
she learned about the room on a web site listing and that Ms. Isharani had previously rented
the room to someone else.  The Corps has not countered or taken issue with these statements. 
On the record we have, claimant has met her burden to show that this was a business
relationship.  Accordingly, this expense should be considered eligible to be reimbursed. 

                             Decision

     The claim is granted.

                                   _________________________________
                                   CATHERINE B. HYATT
                                   Board Judge