Retired IPS officer penalized for misuse of official vehicle

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government has decided to recoup the loss caused to the exchequer due to misuse of official vehicle from a retired IPS officer .

Chief secretary Tom Jose has issued an order to recover Rs 74,552 from D Madhu for using his official vehicle for personal purposes without government permission. The amount will be recovered from his death-cum-retirement gratuity.

The incident pertaining to the issue took place during 2009-2010 when he was assistant director with State Crime Records Bureau. It was found that the officer used his official vehicle to travel 18,638 km using 1,957 litres of fuel for personal purposes. The loss was calculated on the basis of the then hire charges of government vehicles for non-official purposes. Though he was issued a show-cause notice, he denied of any wrong doing. Though he retired in 2012, he was inducted back to the police, after being conferred IPS.

On the basis of the reports from state police chief, chief secretary issued show-cause notice again to the officer in 2017, but by the time he had superannuated from the police after attaining the age of 60 years.

Since he refused to make up for the loss, it was decided to invoke All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969, and recover the loss from his retirement benefits.

Though there are cases of government vehicles misused by officials, the lesser known fact is that they are allowed to use vehicles for personal prposes by remitting a nominal fee fixed per kilometre.