NEW
DELHI: Employees who fail to buy air tickets at the lowest price available on
the day while undertaking journey on Leave Travel Concession (LTC) claim will
face severe penal action, as per the draft guidelines finalised by the Centre.
The
move comes after the government noticed instances where some of its employees
colluded with private travel agents to submit LTC claims showing inflated
airfare to clandestinely obtain undue benefits like free boarding, lodging,
transport or cash refunds.
The
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is also looking into cases of alleged
irregularities in availing the LTC claims.
The
ministries concerned will also carry out random checks with airlines to ensure
that the tickets were booked at the lowest fare available on the date of
purchase.
"It
has now been decided that in accordance with the canons of financial propriety,
government servants should purchase tickets at the lowest rate available at the
time of booking for the date and time of scheduled journey.
"Government
servant will be required to submit print-out of tickets showing date and time
of booking in addition to the fare charged," the new guidelines drafted by
the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said.
Any
violation of the existing norms by authorised travel agents -- M/s Balmer
Lawrie & Company, M/s Ashok Travels & Tours and IRCTC -- will invite
blacklisting.
A
government employee gets reimbursement of tickets for to-and-fro journey, in
addition to leaves, when he avails LTC.
There
are about 50 lakh central government employees.
The
proposed guidelines have cited provisions of the service rules "which
require the government servants to maintain absolute integrity at all
times". In addition, cheating and fraud also attract various sections of
the Indian Penal Code (IPC), it said.
"Ministries
and departments should therefore not hesitate to take severe action against
employees guilty of deliberate malpractices, particularly in collusion with
travel agents etc," the DoPT said.
The
new guidelines are likely to come into force from next month, a senior
government official said.
The
DoPT has also warned the employees that any plea of ignorance of rules will not
be entertained and any deviation will be handled legally and in accordance with
the service rules.
As
per the draft guidelines, while submitting the LTC claim after completion of
the journey, the government servant will be required to submit a
self-certificate on plain paper that the airfare claimed by him or her in
respect of the fare charged by the airline is for the air journey only and does
not include any charges for any facility, undue benefit including boarding,
lodging or local transport.
The
employees need to certify that the tickets were booked "at the lowest fare
available for the destination at the time of booking for the scheduled date and
time of departure" and that they are aware that suppression of any
information or furnishing wrong information will render them liable to
disciplinary action.
whether LTC advance can be granted to an government official who has already purchased tickets? Suppose an Government Employee of Group C or MTS cadre has already purchased Air/Rail Tickets by making his/her own arrangement and later on, applies for granting LTC Advance before commencement of journey. Is he/she eligible for grant of LTC advance after purchasing tickets? Kindly intimate, is there any ruling in this regard. Please quote the ruling also.
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