Board of Contract Appeals General Services Administration Washington, D.C. 20405 ________________________ January 18, 2000 ________________________ GSBCA 15179-RELO In the Matter of FREDERICK J. WHITNEY Frederick J. Whitney, Lowell, MA, Claimant. Marcia Case, Director, Resource & Organizational Management Team, Defense Contract Management Command, Defense Logistics Agency, Ft. Belvoir, VA, appearing for Department of Defense. DeGRAFF, Board Judge. Frederick J. Whitney is a civilian employee of the Department of Defense (DoD) who transferred from a duty station in Massachusetts to one in Saudi Arabia. In mid-December 1998, while Mr. Whitney was stationed in Saudi Arabia, he became ill. Approximately two weeks later, DoD issued travel orders that transferred Mr. Whitney back to his prior duty station in Massachusetts. The travel orders did not provide that DoD would reimburse Mr. Whitney for any real estate expenses if he purchased a house in Massachusetts. After Mr. Whitney returned to Massachusetts, he asked if DoD would reimburse him for real estate expenses. DoD decided that it could not do so because he had returned to the same duty station that he left when he took his overseas assignment. Mr. Whitney asks us to review DoD's decision. He says that if he had not gotten ill, he could have participated in DoD's priority placement program and he might have been able to find a position somewhere other than his old duty station in Massachusetts, which would have made him eligible to be reimbursed for real estate expenses. Mr. Whitney asks us to waive whatever regulation prevents him from being reimbursed for real estate expenses. It is unfortunate that Mr. Whitney had to return to the United States sooner than he planned and that he could not participate in DoD's priority placement program which might have allowed him to return to a different duty station. We must, however, review Mr. Whitney's claim based upon the circumstances as they actually are, and not as they might have been. Mr. Whitney returned from Saudi Arabia to the same duty station that he left in order to go to Saudi Arabia. According to the statute that governs such matters, DoD cannot reimburse Mr. Whitney because he transferred from a post of duty located outside the United States to the same official station within the United States from which he was transferred when he was assigned to the foreign tour of duty. 5 U.S.C. 5724a(d)(2) (Supp. III 1997). The statute does not permit DoD to reimburse Mr. Whitney for his real estate expenses, and neither we nor DoD has the authority to waive the terms of the statute. The claim is denied. ___________________________________ MARTHA H. DeGRAFF Board Judge