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The soldier complained to the Ombudsman that the Chief of Defence Staff had instructed that his salary and rations be withheld for refusing to give 10% of his peace keeping allowances to the army. The complainant was one of the RSLAF personnel that served in the UN Observer Mission in Sudan between 2009 and 2011.
To resolve the complaint, the Ombudsman met with the senior officers that were involved in the matter on two occasions.
The Ombudsman was informed that Section 14 of the Ministry of Defence Peace Support Co-operation Policy requires peace keeping personnel to contribute 10% of their allowances to the RSLAF Peace Keeping Benevolent Fund.

The funds are used to support all visits, medal parades and equipment of the army’s overseas missions. The Ombudsman was further informed that all the other personnel who served in the same Mission with the complainant had made their contributions.
The complainant however contended that the contribution should be voluntary and that there was no prior agreement between him and the army in that regard.
The Ombudsman found that the real reason why the complainant refused to contribute to the fund was because he was due for retirement.
The Ombudsman therefore recommended to the RSAF to deduct the 10% contribution from the complainant‘s ten months outstanding salary and give him the rest together with his ten bags of rice. The RSLAF agreed to this and the complaint was amicably resolved.
(This is a sample of the complaints dealt with by the Ombudsman that was published in the 2011/2012 Annual Report of the Office of the Ombudsman. The aim is to create a better understanding of the kinds of complaints that are referred to the Ombudsman and how they are resolved)