NEW DELHI: The ministry of finance wants ministries and departments to have access to the Indian Railways ’ passenger reservation data to control widespread fraud in travel allowance (TA) and leave travel allowance claims made by government employees.In a letter addressed to Railway Board chairman AK Mittal, a joint secretary in the finance ministry , Annie George Mathew, has written that submission of bogus or forged rail tickets with TA claims was a common problem faced by the government. Mathew requested the Railways to consider giving access to Passenger Name Record or PNR-related information to ministries and departments free of cost ``in the overall interest of transparency and corruption-free government’’.The finance ministry’s letter follows an audit report and subsequent letter from the Additional Controller General of Defence Accounts (A-CGDA), AK Saxena, who found that 3,500 travel and dearness allowance claims made by Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel, including 400 officers up to the rank of Air Commodore, were fake. Saxena’s report estimates the total fraud over the past five years to be around Rs 350 crore. Individually, the amounts seem petty but the fraud could affect promotions of several high-ranking officers as the auditor has recommended strict action against them.ET has reviewed the letters and the audit report of the Dehra Dun-based Principal Controller of Defence Accounts.Saxena had earlier written to the Railways seeking access to passenger records but the national transporter had demanded Rs 750 per PNR for the information. It would cost the CGDA about Rs 12.5 crore per year just to verify the PNRs of the 1.5 lakh TA claims it audits annually. Now the finance ministry has sought free access to the information for all ministries and departments.The PCDA audit had found that in many cases tickets presented for reimbursement were simply fake and hotel bills were inflated or bogus. In some cases where IAF officers took flights, they forged the signatures of the under secretary of the civil aviation ministry. The ministry’s approval is mandatory when officers fly airlines other than Air India. Some others digitally altered the amounts on the tickets to show a higher fare than they actually paid.The auditors suspect there could be an organized racket considering ``the widespread forgery across all commands, involvement of large number of personnel from accounts branch, uniformity in methodology and use of information technology’’.In April this year, the Central Bureau of Investigation had filed a chargesheet against a Janata Dal (United) member of Parliament, Anil Sahni, alleging that he used forged airline tickets and boarding passes to defraud the Rajya Sabha or Upper House of Parliament of Rs 23.71 lakh.