Travel Issues

May you accept a gift of travel from the non-federal entity or an award being offered to you by the non-federal entity?

Well...it depends. If your scope of work indicates that the host organization will pay for travel that is necessary to carry out your duties, then the travel can be accepted pursuant to the Ethics in Government Act (31 U.S.C. 1353) or the IPA act (5 C.F.R. 334)

If you have spelled out the travel arrangements in your IPA agreement, then there is no need to complete the EPA travel acceptance form for any travel paid by your host organization. Instead, you can rely on the travel authority in the IPA Act. However, if you travel under the non-federal entity’s travel reimbursement policies you may not use your federal travel credit card or GSA contracts with airlines and other transportation carriers.

Note: Any travel relating to the EPA (e.g., travel to the EPA duty station for a performance review by an Agency supervisor) or travel the Agency agrees to pay as part of the IPA assignment must be paid by EPA. In these cases, you'll travel under federal travel orders and the federal travel regulations.

What about awards? We'll look at that next.