Civil-military relations in the Defence Ministry are strained once again, this time over the issue of junior officers staying in hotels and not Army guest rooms when on temporary official travel.

Expressing concern at the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (PCDA) asking for a Non-Availability Certificate (NAC) and rejecting refund claims by junior officers, the Army’s Southern Command shot off a letter to the Director-General Land Works and Environment in the Army Headquarters seeking clarification.

“A number of temporary duty claims of officers, wherein they stayed in hotels, are being returned back by PCDA for not attaching NAC from station HQs… The PCDA maintains that they are only ensuring that Army officers follow instructions,” a Major General rank of officer said in the letter dated November 16, written on behalf of the Southern Army Commander.

The letter contested the PCDA’s reference to the instruction in a letter dated April 13 which only states that “availing hotel accommodation by the officer should be the last resort” and observed that the para needs to be read as an in-house advisory and “does not take away the authorisation of officers to stay in hotels.” “Therefore, it is felt that allowing PCDA becoming a superior auditor on officers temporary duty claims in not justified,” the letter stated.

Earlier this year, in an effort to cut daily expenditure of the force, Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat had asked officers going on temporary duties to stay in service guest rooms where available and use hotels as a last resort.

The letter observed that issue was having a “negative impact” on the morale of junior officers due to the feeling that “junior officers have been left out by senior officers to fend for themselves.”

In this regard, the letter requested that a clear cut policy regarding processing of temporary duty claim of the officers be issued. “The policy should aim to avoid undesired interference of PCDA in management of our guest rooms, causing unnecessary harassment to the officers,” the letter added.

In a suggestion to the Army HQ on these instructions, the letter observed that it is difficult for officers travelling on duty to large cities to check every availability guest rooms and also compiling the list of vacancies in all guest houses will cause “inconvenience”.