Personal emergencies are defined as the death or serious illness or injury of a member of the employee's family or catastrophic occurrence or impending disaster such as fire, flood, or act of God which directly affects the employee's home at the official station or the family and occurs while the employee is at, or en route to or from, a temporary duty location. A justification for the higher personal telephone expense allowance must be documented on the approved travel voucher. Receipts are required for all charges, to the extent that the calls were placed through a method that provides a receipt. In all cases, employees should make personal calls during lunch, break, or other off-duty periods, if at all possible. Approving officials must be sensitive to the employee's needs yet, at the same time, keep in mind the Government's interest by assuring that the expense of such calls are reasonable.
Numerous conditions can effect the cost of a telephone call from a foreign country.
These include the foreign country's telephone carrier system, hotel add-on costs, additional tariffs added on from country to country, etc. Each Operating Division is responsible for setting a policy on limitations to reimbursement, in partnership with their local unions. Long Term Temporary Duty Assignments - Each Operating Division is responsible for setting a policy on limitations to reimbursement, in partnership with their local unions. If justified as officially necessary, the authorizing official may authorize a higher daily allowance on the travel order or, if the additional costs were unexpected, the approving official of the travel voucher may approve a higher amount up to the amount of the expenses actually incurred. If a trip within the continental U.S. is less than four consecutive days, there is no authority under the Federal Travel Regulation to authorize or pay a miscellaneous expense allowance for laundry or dry cleaning costs.