Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 13

Offices of the Defence Accounts Department (DAD), which is closely involved in all aspects of defence planning and functioning, have been cautioned against the leak of sensitive military information from its staff.The Directorate General of Military Intelligence (DGMI) had recently reported that sensitive information was shared by some of the DAD’s field officers with unauthorised persons, prompting the Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) to issue a cautionary note to all its establishments.The DAD deals with all military matters having a financial bearing and is associated with scrutiny and vetting of all proposals pertaining to procurements and defence works, processing of payments as well as audit. DAD officers are also integrated with military formations and establishments at various levels to render financial advice to commanders and conduct local audit.Referring to DGMI’s reports, the CGDA’s notepoints out that local audit offices are vulnerable and can be targeted for information pertaining to movement of units and formations, names of commanders and other operational details.Moreover, information pertaining to weapons or equipment being procured, works being executed like building defence structures such as bunkers and bunds or revealing gaps through audit has a serious bearing on national security. The CGDA has cautioned that communication of sensitive information to unauthorised persons would attract disciplinary action.