NEW DELHI:As the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probes the Leave Travel Concession (LTC) scam involving Members of Parliament, the Indian Army has discovered a similar scam in which nearly 40 of its officers are involved and are being investigated.
The matter came to light when the Office of the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (PCDA) discovered cases where several military officers allegedly claimed their LTC through purportedly forged documents. Subsequently, the Pune-based PCDA, which handles salaries and financial claims of Indian Army officers, sent a strongly-worded note to the Army headquarters seeking disciplinary action against the people involved.
Official sources say during its analysis of submitted documents and bills, the defence accounts department had found prima facie irregularities in the LTC claims of over 40 officers with an intention to maximise personal benefit by scuttling the laid-down norms in collusion with travel agents. In some cases, it is believed that air tickets were purchased at exorbitant prices although the fare on that day was nowhere near that amount. For example, an air ticket from Delhi to Port Blair was bought for Rs 90,000.
Defence accounts officials say that some of these tickets may have been bought in cash from Air India by travel agents. Later, they may have created forged e-tickets, showing higher fares. This is a common modus operandi among travel agents. The Army headquarters is also probing whether these officers had actually travelled or just provided forged tickets.
In response to a query by The Sunday Standard, the Army headquarters said an inquiry was being conducted by the Disciplinary and Vigilance (DV) Directorate of the Army.
Official sources said that on the basis of inquiry, the DV Directorate has instructed the deduction of salary and a financial penalty in case of some officers so that the money can be recovered. “Not only salary is being deducted, in some cases, involved officers have been reprimanded,” an officer, who is privy to the development, said on the condition of anonymity. Defence accounts officials are also investigating whether an organised gang of travel agents is working in military circles.
“Since we have come across about 40 officers in a random check of claims given between the period 2012-2014, we are now closely scrutinising each and every leave travel concession or temporary duty claim to detect a bigger scam, if any. Some cases might be recommended for further action by an investigating agency,” explained a senior officer.
The officer added that air tickets for LTC can only be purchased from registered travel agents, but in some cases, officers bought air tickets from other agents. On inquiry, some officers involved claimed they did not do so ‘deliberately’, but due to ignorance.
A similar inquiry was conducted on 400 employees of Jabalpur-based Ordnance Factory Board, who travelled with their families to the Northeast to avail LTC in 2008. It was found that the e-tickets submitted for claims were fake in many cases. In 2008, under a special order of the government to promote tourism in the Northeast, even the lowest-ranked government employees and their families could fly to the Northeast sector and claim airfare under LTC. The CBI also launched probe in to OFB Jabalpur fraud.
In 2013, the CBI registered cases against six sitting and former members of Rajya Sabha in connection with the LTC scam in which travel reimbursement was allegedly claimed by them through forged bills. The incident had come to light after the vigilance department of Air India was alerted about the arrest of a man at Kolkata airport with 600 blank boarding passes of the airline.
Suspecting a criminal nexus between air travel agents and government employees, Air India got in touch with the CVC, which then asked the CBI to look into the matter.
Meanwhile, the CVC had also written to the Cabinet Secretary and the Ministry of Finance to make changes in LTC rules to check irregularities. Lakhs of rupees are said to have been fraudulently claimed from the government exchequer through fake LTC claims availed by government officials.