the monthly payment authorized by section 8 (a) may be prorated for a fraction of a month's service. Question (j) The statute provides that an enlisted man otherwise qualified in accordance with its conditions shall, in addition to the amounts otherwise payable to such person with respect to such training and service, be entitled to receive the sum of $10 for each month of such training and service in excess of 12. This language is plain that the $10 is simply to be added to amounts otherwise payable to an enlisted man after the computation of such other amounts is completed, and, that it should not be added to the base pay for the purpose of computing longevity or aviation pay. Question (k) No, for the reason stated in answer to question (j). Question (1) In view of the answer to question (h) and the fact that the forfeitures are understood to be total with the exception of amounts necessary for payment for civilian clothes, transportation, and a limited payment of money, the case is not within the statute. Question (m) The general rule is that a statute is effective from and after its date unless it is clear from the language of the statute that a different effective date was intended. 13 Comp. Gen. 265. However, section 8 (a) of the Service Extension Act of 1941, provides that the monthly increase shall be paid to any enlisted man of the Regular Army for each month of military service rendered by him after the date of enactment of the said act. This language requires a holding that with respect to personnel of the Regular Navy the act is effective on and after August 19, 1941. See 7 Comp. Gen. 793, 794. Question (n) This question is based upon conditions which may not arise and it is believed proper that no decision with respect thereto should be rendered at this time. (B-21236) TRAVELING EXPENSES-RETURN TO CIVILIAN POSITION AFTER MILITARY DUTY An employee inducted into the military forces under either the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 or Public Resolution No. 96 of August 27, 1940, whose position has been abolished during a period of furlough for such duty but who is offered a position of like seniority, status, and pay at a different location is required to bear the expense of travel to such point. Comptroller General Warren to the Secretary of War, October 30, 1941: 1. The Department has been requested to authorize travel at Government expense for an employee who has returned from active military duty and made application for reinstatement to his former position, wherein the following situation applies. 2. The employee was furloughed from his civil position of C. C. C. company commander, Sacramento C. C. C. District, on November 25, 1940, and has returned to that location and met all the requirements for reinstatement. Since that time the C. C. C. camps under the Sacramento C. C. C. District have been disbanded and as a result, the employee's former position has been abolished, and no other position of like seniority, status, and pay is available for him at that location. He can be assigned, however, to a position of like status and pay at a different location. 3. Since the employee reported back to the location of his former position and has made application for reinstatement thereto in good faith, your decision is requested as to whether the Department may authorize his travel at Government expense to a different location, to enter on duty from a furlough status. Section 8 (a) and (b) (A) of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, approved September 16, 1940, 54 Stat. 890, provides that an employee of the United States, other than temporary, who meets all of the conditions to entitle him to restoration to a civilian position after expiration of his period of active military service "shall be restored to such postion or to a position of like seniority, status and pay," and subsection (c) of the same section of the statute provides: Any person who is restored to a position in accordance with the provisions of paragraph (A) or (B) of subsection (b) shall be considered as having been on furlough or leave of absence during his period of training and service in the land or naval forces, shall be so restored without loss of seniority, shall be entitled to participate in insurance or other benefits offered by the employer pursuant to established rules and practices relating to employees on furlough or leave of absence in effect with the employer at the time such person was inducted into such forces, and shall not be discharged from such position without cause within one year after such restoration. See, also, the corresponding provision in Public Resolution No. 96, approved August 27, 1940, 54 Stat. 858, as amended by section 8 (d) of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, supra. The provisions of the Selective Training and Service Act and Public Resolution No. 96 do not guarantee restoration to the same position occupied by the employee when he entered the active military duty, but restoration either to the same position or to a position of like seniority, status, and pay. Neither do the provisions of the statutes guarantee restoration to a position at the same place the employee was previously employed. There is nothing in the statutes authorizing the reimbursement of an employee of the cost of traveling expenses incurred in returning to a civilian position after termination of his active military service. Such expenses do not constitute "benefits offered by the employer pursuant to the established rules and practices relating to employees on furlough or leave of absence in effect with the employer at the time such person was inducted into such forces," quoting from the statutes, supra. Further more, even viewing the matter from its most favorable light—namely, as a transfer there would be required the consideration of the provisions of section 301 of the act approved May 31, 1941, Public Law 88, 55 Stat. 234, reading as follows (which provisions likewise have appeared in previous annual appropriation acts for many years): Appropriations for the fiscal year 1942 available for expenses of travel of civilian officers and employees of the executive departments and establishments shall be available also for expenses of travel performed by them on transfer from one official station to another when authorized by the head of the department or establishment concerned in the order directing such transfer: Provided, That such expenses shall not be allowed for any transfer effected for the convenience of any officer or employee. And it will be seen that said statute authorizes payment of traveling expenses of employees of the Government only "on transfer from one official station to another," subject to the conditions therein. stated. While it has been held that the benefits of that statute are applicable upon the return of an employee to active duty from furlough or leave of absence without pay, if all of the conditions of the statute are otherwise fulfilled (decision of October 2, 1940, B-12385), in the instant case the employee's old position had been abolished while he was on furlough or leave of absence without pay and he had no official headquarters upon his return from which he could be transferred or upon which the statute could operate. Accordingly, his restoration to a civilian position at another location is for viewing as in the nature of a new appointment thus constituting the place where he is first assigned for duty as his first duty station to which he must bear the cost of reporting. See 20 Comp. Gen. 820, and decisions therein cited. In the light of the foregoing I am constrained to hold that the employee is required to bear the expense of returning to any civilian position of like seniority, status, and pay, to which he may be restored, irrespective of the place where the duties are to be performed. (B-21497) PERSONAL SERVICES-PRIVATE CONTRACT V. GOVERNMENT PERSONNEL-TABULATING SERVICES Where neither the basic legislation nor the appropriation made to carry out its purposes expressly, nor by necessary implication, requires that certain work be performed by the personnel of the particular agency for which the funds are appropriated and it develops that it would be impossible or impracticable to have the work performed by the employees of that agency, the General Accounting Office will not object to the use of the appropriation involved to pay for having the work done otherwise. 15 Comp. Gen. 951, distinguished. Where it is not in the interests of the Government to have certain tabulating services in connection with the registration of aliens under the Alien Registration Act of 1940 performed by Department of Justice employees and it is found after advertising for bids that such work can be "as conveniently or more cheaply" procured by contract with a private concern than by placing an order therefor with another Government agency, such mode of procurement is authorized under section 601 of the act of June 30, 1932, which expressly provides that services may be so procured under such circumstances. Comptroller General Warren to the Attorney General, October 31, 1941: I have your letter of October 29, 1941, as follows: It is necessary at the present time to punch into approximately 5,000,000 cards in respect of all aliens registered under the Alien Registration Act of 1940, the codes indicating their arrests, affiliations and other data. The personnel and machines for this type of work in the Alien Registration Division of the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the Department of Justice are already engaged in similar punching operations to keep the alien registration records current and to prepare information on aliens which is important in national defense. For example, it is essential to keep current the records of changes of address and status of certain classes of aliens and this information can be kept readily available only by these punching operations. These essential operations would be delayed if this personnel and these machines were withdrawn from this current work to do this additional work which is also an essential part of the control of aliens in connection with the national defense program. Even if additional machines could be rented to do this work, there is no space available for them and even if that could be procured it would take months to obtain personnel and even a longer period to train them at considerable expense for this temporary work. It is proposed to have this additional work, which will take approximately fifty working days, done by the International Business Machine Corporation, which has the machines and the trained personnel, under a contract at a cost of $57,000. It is called to our attention, however, that a decision of Comptroller General McCarl of May 2, 1936 (15 Comp. Gen. 951) states that a proposed contract of the Securities and Exchange Commission with the International Business Machine Corporation to punch, sort, and tabulate cards containing information extracted from questionnaires obtained in studies of investment trusts, was not authorized. Apparently that decision was based upon the particular statute there involved because it statęs that section 30 of the Public Utility Holding Act of 1935 charges the Commission with the duty of making the studies and incorporating them in a report to Congress, and section 31 of the same statute authorizes the Commission to employ the necessary personnel. These provisions imply the intention of Congress that this work should be done by this personnel. In addition the appropriation specifically applicable to the Commission's work expressly provides for rental of equipment and that provision supported the implication that this particular work was to be done by Government personnel on rented machines. In the present case, however, there are no such specific statutory provisions implying that this work shall be done only by Government personnel. Section 34 (a) of the Alien Registration Act of 1940 provides that the Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization is authorized and directed, with the approval of the Attorney General, to prescribe the information which aliens must supply upon registration. The general authority to process this information to make this data readily available, is necessarily implied from the whole purpose of alien registration. Nothing in this general authority, however, implies that it must be done in any particular way. Moreover, the appropriation acts here involved do not support an implication that this work is to be done solely by Government personnel in the same way that the specific appropriation for rental and equipment for the Securities and Exchange Commission supported that implication. Rental of machines for the work of the Alien Registration Division is not paid out of the appropriation for "Salaries and Expenses, Immigration and Naturalization Service," but is paid out of "Contingent Expenses," a general appropriation for the Department of Justice. It is suggested that since rental of such equipment is not paid out of the appropriation for the Inmigration aud Naturalization Service but out of a general appropriation, there is no implication, as in the decided case, that this work was to be done only on rented machines and by Government personnel. If the proposed contract is not authorized it will cost the Government an additional $9,000 (over a 15% increase) to have the work done by the Bureau of the Census which has available machines and personnel. In view of the fact that it is imperative to do this work as soon as possible, and the Bureau of the Census will not retain its temporary personnel beyond October 30, 1941, I shall be obliged if you will give me your views on this matter as quickly as possible. As indicated in your letter, the decision of May 2, 1936, 15 Comp. Gen. 951, was based upon the provisions of the particular statute there considered which charged the Government agency involved with the duty of performing the necessary work and services. I find nothing in the Alien Registration Act, 1940, 54 Stat. 670, or in the Department of Justice Appropriation Act, 1942, 55 Stat. 289, which expressly or by necessary implication requires, under the reported facts and circumstances, that the work and services discussed in your above-quoted letter necessarily be performed only by the Department of Justice. Consequently, the said decision is not controlling here; and, in view of the representations made as to the impracticability or impossibility of having these cards punched by employees of your Department in time to meet the need therefor, I have to advise that this office will not object to the use of the appropriation involved to pay for having the punching done otherwise. The question as to whether the services should be procured under contract with a private concern or from another Government agency, is for determination pursuant to the provisions of section 601, title VI, of the act of June 30, 1932, 47 Stat. 417, which provides, in pertinent part, as follows: Any executive department or independent establishment of the Government, or any bureau or office thereof, if funds are available therefor and if it is determined by the head of such executive department, establishment, bureau or office to be in the interest of the Government so to do, may place orders with any other such department, establishment, bureau, or office for materials, supplies, equipment, work, or services, of any kind that such requisitioned Federal agency may be in a position to supply or equipped to render, and shall pay promptly by check to such Federal agency as may be requisitioned, upon its written request, either in advance or upon the furnishing or performance thereof, all or part of the estimated or actual cost thereof as determined by such department, establishment, bureau, or office as may be requisitioned; but proper adjustments on the basis of the actual cost of the materials, supplies, or equipment furnished, or work or services performed, paid for in advance, shall be made as may be agreed upon by the departments, establishments, bureaus, or offices concerned: Provided, however, That if such work or services can be as conveniently or more cheaply performed by private agencies such work shall be let by competitive bids to such private agencies. Bills rendered, or requests for advance payments made, pursuant to any such order, shall not be subject to audit or certification in advance of payment. [Italics supplied.] Under the terms of said section-assuming that it is not practicable or in the interests of the Government to have this particular cardpunching job performed by employees in your Department—you are |