Army, IAF chiefs to appear before PAC Wednesday

NEW DELHI - In an unprecedented move, the chiefs of the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the vice chief of the Indian Navy will appear before parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Wednesday to answer queries about alleged irregularities in defence-run canteens as pointed out by the government auditor last year.

This is the first time that the PAC has summoned the chiefs of the three services for providing accounts of the canteens to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

The services will to stick to their stand that their Unit Run Canteens (URC) were beyond the purview of the committee because they have their own internal audit mechanisms to keep a watch on them.

“We still maintain that URC is beyond their purview. That is the basic issue on which I presume the hearing or questioning will take place. We have given our replies to them and let us see how it goes tomorrow (Wednesday),” the Indian Air Force chief, Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik, told reporters here on the sidelines of a defence function.

We all must remember one thing that we all are subject to parliament. That is the system of our governance. Nobody is exempt, he said.

Army Chief General V.K. Singh has also made it clear that he would be appearing before the PAC. We have no problem in appearing before the PAC. We are following the directives of the defence ministry. I will appear before the PAC, Singh told reporters Monday.

A defence ministry official said that the PAC has been informed that General Singh and Air Chief Marshal Naik will be appearing before it.

Since Navy Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma is on a “pre-scheduled visit” to Indonesia, he would be represented by his deputy, Vice Admiral D.K. Deewan.

The CAG, in its report in August last year, had criticised the services over the way Canteen Stores Department (CSD) and its unit-run canteens function and the lack of transparency in their accounting methods.

The PAC had later sought answers from the defence ministry, which in turn had written to the service chiefs on the alleged irregularities.

The ministry also asked the PAC to speak to the three service chiefs and sought answers from them on the queries raised by the auditor.

The PAC then wrote letters to the service chiefs asking them to appear before the committee Jan 12.

There are some 3,600 unit-run canteens, which operate on soft loans extended by the military and operate from military premises. The CAG report said that the concessions given to the canteens resulted in a loss of Rs.441 crore to the government from 2002-03 to 2008-09.

The CAG report had criticised the existing methods of ration procurement by canteens and castigated the military, saying there were “systemic deficiencies” in running the canteens.

It said existing procedures were not enough to “realistically” assess the requirements of dry rations.

As per the procedures, the CAG can seek details from the ministry over alleged irregularities, if any, and the defence secretary usually attends to such calls by parliamentary committees. Thus, calling the service chiefs is a first.