Army chief warns of officers on fiddle - Times Online
The incoming head of the British Army has warned in a leaked document of widespread fraud by officers and soldiers fiddling allowances and pilfering.
Lieutenant-General Sir David Richards, who will take over as chief of the general staff in August, said troops had been caught exploiting a trust-based payments system by putting in bogus claims for expenses and allowances.
He accused some of his 94,000 men of reacting to the recession by using the system like “a cash machine”.
“I am becoming concerned over the prevalence of fraudulent behaviour as well as what I can at best describe as ‘sharp practice’ and at worst dishonesty,” he said in a letter to key commanders last week.
Previously all claims had to be signed by a senior officer but the joint personnel administration system (JPA) allows soldiers to put in claims via computer. They are checked randomly. “There are soldiers and even some officers who view JPA as a ‘cash machine’ and are processing fraudulent claims in the belief that if caught they will claim ignorance and hope to refund the monies with no further action,” Richards said.
“While this may be an acceptable excuse for a small number of our young soldiers as they develop competence on JPA, it is inexcusable for our commissioned, warrant and noncommissioned officers.”
A defence source said: “Every single sample they have looked at this year has turned up examples of fraud: journeys that never happened, entertainment that isn’t justified. Richards would not be getting involved if this wasn’t serious.”
Other sources said some soldiers and officers felt justified in padding their claims because when the £250m JPA system was introduced in April last year many soldiers and officers were badly underpaid.
Richards accused senior officers of misusing allowances for entertainment and education: “I am concerned about the abuse of allowances, in particular where individuals may not be in clear breach of the rules but are certainly in breach of the spirit or underlying intent.”
A former commander of international forces in Afghanistan, Richards is commander-in-chief UK land forces. He told all commanders to ensure that any claims were properly supervised “to protect the less virtuous from themselves”.
He added: “Petty pilfering of stationery and other commodities is another area that is not only a clear breach of our values and standards but an unnecessary drain on resources that could be better spent looking after our soldiers.” Members of the army are eligible for allowances ranging from £1.50 a day for staying in another barracks to £11,000 per child for boarding school fees if the parent is based abroad.
Officers above lieutenant-colonel are entitled to first-class travel and the use of expensive hotels. All claims must be justified and receipts must be kept for three years, but some like mileage allowance or travel do not require receipts. If a soldier or officer stays with a friend or relative instead of ina hotel, they can claim a “privately arranged rate” of £25 a night.
A senior officer said any soldier caught deliberately making false claims would be court-martialled and could face a dishonourable discharge.
Nothing to do with JPA being an ill-thought out, poorly implemented and badly designed system that inundates the untrained user with unfamiliar options, provides no help to what people
can claim, compounded by a hopelessely overloaded remote 'help desk' and non-existent local advisors then? Thought not.
An
average lawyer should be able to get all but the very blatent fraudsters off the hook.