Reporting Travel for a Career Soldier
Question
Honorable Rabbi, shalom,
I wanted to ask regarding reimbursement of travel expenses in the IDF.
I serve as a career soldier, and there is an option to submit a request for reimbursement of car travel expenses. This concerns a period of one year. In practice, for most of the period I did not use a car, and I arrived mainly by public transportation, but there were also certain periods during which I came mainly by car.
The IDF / personnel office did not give me a clear answer as to whether, in such a situation, I am entitled to full reimbursement, partial reimbursement, or none at all. Rather, they simply told me to submit the forms in order to receive it.
(It is possible that they will check my use of public transportation / car, and based on that decide whether to approve the entitlement or cancel it.)
The form itself is mainly a declaration about the car and a copy of the vehicle license, and there is no place in it to specify that the use of the car was only for part of the period.
(In addition, I understood that during the war period, eligibility for travel reimbursement continued even when people were at home and did not actually come to the base, and they still received reimbursement.)
My question is from a halachic standpoint:
May I submit the request in such a situation, where the IDF system will check and decide whether I am entitled to it or not, or is there a concern of theft / receiving money that is not due to me, because I did not use the car throughout the entire period?
Thank you very much.
Answer
Shalom and blessings.
According to the situation you describe, there is no problem at all with submitting the request.
A. They are supposed to check how much and why you used the car.
B. If they do not check, it is likely because they approve any use of a car due to the wartime period, as you wrote in the question.
