Section 161
Compensation for loss occasioned by wrongful acts or negligence
Without prejudice to the provision of this Act as to the imposition of stoppages as a punishment, the following provisions shall have effect where after an inquiry by a board of inquiry in accordance with the Board of Inquiry Rules it appears to the competent authority that any officer or serviceman—
(a)
has caused any loss of, or damage to, service or public property;
(b)
has failed to collect any moneys owing to the Federal
Government of which he is or was responsible;
(c)
is or was responsible for any improper payment of public moneys of the Federal Government or for any payment of public moneys which is not duly vouched;
(d)
is or was responsible for any deficiency in, or for the destruction of, any public moneys, stamps, securities, stores or other property of the Federal Government;
(e)
being or having been an accounting officer, fails or has failed to keep proper accounts or records;
(f)
has failed to make any payment, or is or was responsible for any delay in the payment, of public moneys of the
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Federal Government to any person to whom such payment is due under any law or under any lawful contract, agreement or arrangement entered into with that person, and the aforesaid has been occasioned by any wrongful act or negligence of an officer or serviceman of the regular forces
(hereinafter referred to as the “person responsible”).
(2)
The competent authority shall require the person responsible to furnish an explanation on the wrongful act or negligence that has been occasioned and if a satisfactory explanation is not furnished within a period specified by the competent authority, the competent authority may order the person responsible (whether or not he is a member of the regular forces at the time when the order is made) to pay, as or towards compensation, a sum not exceeding the amount of any loss or damage to service or public property, or any such amount not collected, or any such payment, deficiency or loss or the value of the property destroyed, as the case may be; and with regard to the failure to keep proper accounts or records, or the failure to make payment, or the delay in making payment, the competent authority may order the person responsible to pay such sum as the competent authority may think fit.
(3)
The competent authority shall cause the commanding officer or the head of department of the person responsible to be notified of any order or any decision made under subsection (2), and the commanding officer or the head of department shall thereupon notify the person responsible of any such order or decision.
(4)
Any amount ordered to be paid under this section shall be a debt due to the Government from the person responsible against whom the order is made and the amount may be sued for and recovered in any court at the suit of the Government and may also, if the competent authority directs, be recovered by deduction—
(a)
from the pay of the person responsible; or
(b)
from the pension of the person responsible,
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by equal monthly instalments not exceeding one-fourth of the total monthly pay or pension, as the case may be, of the person responsible.
(5)
No order shall be made under subsection (4) if, in proceedings under this Act before a court-martial, an appropriate superior authority or a commanding officer, the person responsible—
(a)
has been acquitted in circumstances involving a finding that he was not guilty of the wrongful act or negligence in question; or
(b)
has been awarded stoppages in respect of the same loss or damage, but save as aforesaid, the fact that any such proceedings have been brought in respect of the wrongful act or negligence in question shall not prevent the making of an order or deductions under subsection (4).
(6)
For the purpose of this section—
“accounting officer” includes every officer or serviceman who is charged with the duty of collecting, receiving, or accounting for, or who in fact collects, receives or accounts for, any public moneys, or who is charged with the duty of disbursing, or who does in fact disburse, any public moneys, and every officer or serviceman who is charged with the receipt, custody or disposal of, or the accounting for, public stores or who in fact receives, holds or disposes of public stores;
“public moneys” means all revenue, loan, trust and other moneys and all bonds, debentures, and other securities raised or received by or on account of the Federal Government.