The Indian Ambassador to Austria, Renu Pall, has been recalled after the Chief Vigilance Officer of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) found that she had incurred expenditure of crores of rupees on her government residency without permission.
Pall apparently recorded expenses of Rs 15 lakh a month for her official residency in Vienna. According to Expatistan, a crowd-sourced aggregator of living expenses in cities across the world, the average rent in an ‘expensive’ area in Vienna is around €1,360 (Rs 1.08 lakh). In the diplomatic area, Innere Stadt, where the Indian embassy is located, HousingAnywhere.com showed rental options ranging from €1,500 to €3,000 (Rs 1.19 to 2.4 lakh).
According to IANS, she was recalled for "financial irregularities and misuse of government funds". In addition, official sources speaking to IANS, she had been “fraudulently claiming the VAT refunds and misrepresenting facts in various permissions”.
The findings came after an investigation ordered by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) found prima facie evidence of "financial irregularities, misappropriation of funds and breach of conduct rules". A team headed by the Chief Vigilance Officer of the CVC had visited Vienna in September to conduct the investigation.
While Pall had a month remaining in her tenure, she was transferred to headquarters on December 9 and barred from exercising her administrative or financial powers as Ambassador. She returned to India on December 29.
A 1988-batch IFS officer, Pall was earlier the Joint Secretary (ASEAN Multilateral) in the MEA and has served as Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of India, Berlin. She has had overseas assignments at the Embassies of India at Washington DC, Paris and Moscow, and has also served as Director (US and Canada), Director (Foreign Secretary’s Office) and Under Secretary & Deputy Secretary (US & Canada) in the MEA.
