Chandigarh, June 16
Failure to adhere to the prescribed procedure for the sanction of counter insurgency (CI) allowance has resulted in the Air Force paying irregular grant amounting over Rs 41 crore to IAF personnel.
Audit has revealed that between August 1999 and March 2006, the IAF paid Rs 41.39 crore as special compensatory (CI) allowance to its personnel stationed in Jammu and Kashmir. In contravention of government orders, the allowance was paid to all personnel instead of restricting payments to only those personnel, who were specially engaged or actually taking part in CI duties.
In March 1995, the ministry of defence had issued instructions for the payment of special allowance to IAF personnel who were “specifically” engaged in the CI operations. The ministry also directed that the personnel would qualify for this allowance only after the local formation commander certified that they were actually engaged in the CI operations.
The Air Headquarters justified the payment on the ground that all uniformed personnel, including support staff, had to be in a state of readiness at all times as they were required to provide support to ground troops and were hence open to threat of attacks.
The Headquarters Western Air Command admitted that payments were being made as an incentive. The Comptroller and Auditor General, however, was of the opinion that the allowance was being doled out in a routine manner, nullifying the primary objective of compensating defence personnel directly and specifically engaged in CI operations.
Audit also found that the CI allowance was paid to IAF personnel without obtaining the prior approval of the government and there was no timely review of
continuance of deployment on CI operations. The ministry’s instructions on March 1995 laid down that the duration of CI operations would initially be for six months, which could be extended by six months at a time after review, which had to be initiated three months before the expiry of the six-month period.
Payments from May 1999 to October 2002 were regularised through an ex-post facto approval For the period March 2003 to February 2004, the approval was given only in June 2004, while for the period March 2004 to February 2005, the approval was given in November 2004 and the concerned united were notified as late as March 2005.
