An employee in a missing status is entitled to receive or have credited to his account, for the period he is in that status, the same pay and allowances to which he was entitled at the beginning of that period or may become entitled thereafter. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an employee in a missing status on or after January 1, 1965, is entitled—

(1) to payment for annual leave which accrued to his account on or after January 1, 1965, but which was forfeited under section 6304 of this title because he was unable to use that leave by virtue of his missing status; or

(2) to have all of that leave restored to him and credited to a separate leave account in accordance with the provisions of section 6304(d)(2) of this title.

Entitlement to pay and allowances under subsection (a) of this section ends on the date of—

(1) receipt by the head of the agency concerned of evidence that the employee is dead; or

(2) death prescribed or determined under section 5565 of this title.

An employee who is officially determined to be absent from his post of duty without authority is indebted to the United States for payments of amounts credited to his account under subsection (a) of this section for the period of that absence.

When an employee in a missing status is continued in that status under section 5565 of this title, he continues to be entitled to have pay and allowances credited under subsection (a) of this section.

(Pub. L. 89–554, Sept. 6, 1966, 80 Stat. 490; Pub. L. 93–181, § 7(a), Dec. 14, 1973, 87 Stat. 707; Pub. L. 96–54, § 2(a)(33), Aug. 14, 1979, 93 Stat. 383.)