The government has started recovering

The government has started recovering 

irregular LTC (leave travel concession)

The government has started recovering irregular LTC (leave travel concession) claimed by some employees of National Informatics Centre (NIC) and one of its public sector units, even as CBI carries on with its widespread criminal investigation into the LTC scam.

According to documents accessed by TOI, the National Informatics Centre Services Inc (NICSI), a company promoted by NIC, has issued recovery notices to "NICSI/NIC officers for irregular reimbursement claims of LTC."

According to officials, during a recent hearing in the Delhi high court on the issue, the court had agreed to the recovery of the irregularly claimed amount from officials concerned of NICSI. At a meeting on April 23, the board of NICSI decided that recovery of irregular LTC payments would be carried out in installments from May salary onwards.

A CAG audit of NICSI had shown that the board of the company had "irregularly amended the LTC rules and allowed its employees, which were government employees on deputation from NIC, to avail leave travel concession (LTC) facility abroad in contravention to DoPT stipulations."

The audit had pointed out that the company had made an irregular reimbursement of Rs 1.24 crore for foreign journeys, and Rs 65.50 lakh for travel within India that violated LTC norms.

The audit found that the irregular LTC amendments "led to notional claims by the officials of the company for the farthest place from the headquarters without undertaking any journey to those places. Out of the 41 claims for which reimbursements were made during 2009-10 to 2013-14, amounts were stated to have been restricted to presumptive fares as obtained from Balmer Lawrie & Co. but no proof was found attached to 33 claims. Even in respect of the eight cases where proof for restricting of presumptive fare is attached, discrepancies were noticed in seven cases."

The audit also found that the then managing director of NICSI, who was a member of the committee that recommended irregular changes, availed LTC for 2010-13 and went to Milan/Rome by Qatar Airways. He claimed Rs 1.92 lakh.

The audit also found that many of the NICSI employees did not carry out the travel via Air India, as is required.