Service Members Get New Meal Rates

 
By Gerry Gilmore
Special to American Forces Press Service

	WASHINGTON -- Service members on temporary duty orders will 
receive a more flexible and simplified per diem meal rate. 
	Defense officials said a new per diem rate for meals, 
combining the average of on-base and locality off-base rates plus 
incidental costs is in place. Lodging isn't affected.
	Lt. Col. Kay Moore, a compensation and entitlements officer 
with Army's deputy chief of staff for personnel, said the new 
system brings a different perspective to establishing per diem 
rates for meals.
	The DoD comptroller has decided to simplify dining facility 
operations by charging one rate instead of several, Moore said. 
For TDY service members, the change reduces dining costs from 
$18.15 a day to $7 (breakfast, $1.50; lunch, $2.75, dinner, 
$2.75). Moore said commands approving temporary duty orders now 
decide on the appropriate rate based on availability and 
practicality of government meals.
	The old system of adjustments based on availability or use 
of individual meals created extra recordkeeping and extra work in 
settling travel claims, according to personnel officials. Without 
the corresponding per diem reduction, travelers using the dining 
facility some of the time either were overpaid at the locality 
per diem rate or underpaid at the on-base rate.
	"If the dining facility rate was changing, that meant that 
the per diem rate had to change as well," Moore s aid.
	Officials issuing temporary duty orders and commanders of 
military school facilities will play key roles in determining an 
individual's per diem rate for meals. "They look at whether 
government meals are available where the individual is going," 
said Moore. She said they will also see if it's practical to use 
available government dining facilities based upon mission 
requirements. 
	The new "proportional meal rate" applies if:
	o The service member resides on base and has some access to 
a government dining facility, but the mission prevents the 
traveler from using the dining facility part of the time;
	o The government dining facility was thought to be available 
for all three meals, but that's not so;
	o The traveler has one or two meals on a given day included 
in a registration fee or otherwise provided free of charge. Meals 
on airlines and meals provided by friends and relatives aren't in 
this free-of-charge category.
	Accounting agencies will also benefit from the new system, 
said Moore's co-worker, Lt. Col. Susan Hardman. "Finance offices 
won't have to do a meal-by-meal accounting deduction process 
anymore," she said. "The per diem rate is by the day; that's why 
it's simpler."
	
(Gilmore writes for the Army News Service in Washington.)

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