Page:Decisions of the Comptroller General of the United States Volume 4.pdf/33

8 Section 8 of the civil service retirement act of May 22, 1920, 41 Stat. 618, provides that "there shall be deducted and withheld from the basic salary, pay, or compensation of each employee to whom this act applies a sum equal to 2½ per cent of such employee's basic salary, pay, or compensation." Section 2 of the same act provides as follows:

The term "basic salary, pay, or compensation" wherever used in this act shall be so construed as to exclude from the operation of the act all bonuses, allowances, overtime pay, or salary, pay, or compensation given in addition to the base pay of the positions as fixed by law or regulation.

The appropriation acts for 1923 and 1924 added an additional duty to the office of chief clerk and prescribed an additional amount to be paid for that additional duty. Accordingly the position of chief clerk was enlarged by law to include the duties of superintendent of the Army War College Building, and as compensation for such additional duties there was added to the regular compensation otherwise fixed for the position of chief clerk the sum of $25 per month, which must be considered as an increase in the basic salary of the enlarged position; that is, the position of chief clerk and superintendent was fixed by law and a regular amount of compensation provided therefor, to wit, $2,300 per annum. Accordingly the additional allowance does not come within the exception in section 2 of the retirement act and therefore is subject to the 2½ per cent retirement deduction. Refund of all amounts not deducted from the additional compensation provided for the service of superintendence of the Army War College Building should be made and the appropriations should be adjusted accordingly. See 2 Comp. Gen. 525.

The commission given an Army officer when discharged and recommissioned under the Army reorganization act of June 30, 1922, 42 Stat. 722, is not his "first appointment in the permanent service" such as is made the basis for determining the pay periods of certain officers under the joint service pay act.

Decision by Comptroller General McCarl, July 2, 1924:

Oscar O. Kuentz, major, Corps of Engineers, requested April 21, 1924, review of settlement No. M–805877–W, dated March 26, 1924, disallowing his claim under the act of June 10, 1922, 42 Stat. 625, for the difference between the allowances of the fourth and third pay periods subsequent to October 14, 1923. The claim was disallowed on the ground that since claimant originally entered the