# 2016-004 - Honours and Awards

Case Summary

F&R Date: 2016–05–13

The grievor argued that he was entitled to the General Campaign Star – Southwest Asia (GCS-SWA) 210 rotation bar and that the CAF should have relied on his member's personnel record resume (MPRR) and his attached posting instruction to determine whether he met the 210-day total in theatre requirement. Both of these documents indicated that he was attached posted to Task Force Afghanistan for a total of 220 days.

The initial authority (IA), the Chief of Military Personnel, determined that the Directorate of Honours and Recognition (DH&R) is obligated to ensure that all military members receive the awards for which they are eligible and that DH&R uses the best tool available to calculate the number of days in theatre, ensuring that all legal requirements for medals assignment are met. The IA noted that the MPRR and attached posting instruction can be inaccurate and that DH&R has determined that the central computerized pay system (CCPS) is the most accurate means of calculating the number of days in theatre. Since the CCPS indicated that the grievor was in theatre for only 208 days, the IA found that he was not entitled to the rotation bar.

The Committee found that an attached posting instruction indicates the dates that a CAF member is posted to a particular assignment, that is to say the change of strength (COS) date, but does not identify the actual reporting and departing dates from theatre. Therefore. the Committee concluded that the attached posting instruction could not be relied upon to show the exact dates of the grievor's in theatre deployment.

The Committee also found that the dates indicated in the grievor's MPRR reflected the dates in the attached posting instruction, which is the source document. Accordingly, the Committee found that the MPRR could not be relied upon to show the exact dates of the grievor's in theatre deployment.

Finally, the Committee considered whether the CCPS is more reliable than the MPRR or the attached posting instruction. Since pay and certain benefits only begin when a military member is actually in theatre and end when he/she departs that theatre, the CCPS requires accurate recordkeeping. This is done by the deployed clerks in order to ensure CAF members are paid the precise amount of allowances to which they are entitled. The Committee noted that the CCPS is carefully and proactively managed to be reliable, accurate and up-to-date, and that the same could not be said of the MPRR.

The Committee also noted that if the dates in the CCPS were wrong and the MPRR was right as he claimed, the grievor would have been underpaid by approximately 12 days and yet he did not contest the accuracy of the period for which he was paid his operations allowances.

The Committee recommended that the grievance be denied since the CCPS, as the most reliable source, indicated that the grievor was physically in Afghanistan for 208 days and not the 210 days required for the GCS-SWA rotation bar.

FA Decision Summary

The FA agrees with the Committee's findings and recommendation that the grievance be denied.