The Hindu : 'Eminent persons' may examine deals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 24, 2002

National

National

'Eminent persons' may examine deals

By Sandeep Dikshit

NEW DELHI APRIL 23. The Government today announced several measures to speed up defence purchases keeping in view India's expanding role in Asia and in the sea-lanes girding the subcontinent.

On a day when a parliamentary committee pulled up the Defence Ministry for its ``time- consuming, tedious and complicated'' procedures for equipment acquisition, the Defence Secretary, Yogendra Narain, dwelt extensively on the reforms being effected in defence purchases as part of the restructuring of the country's higher defence management following ``an increasing realisation that India's defence set-up should not be out of tune with the prevailing security scenario.''

While the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) and the Central Vigilance Commission will continue to vet purchases above Rs. 75 crores, the Government plans to adopt the French model of appointing a panel of ``eminent persons'' to examine all the deals before the contracts are signed.

In order to compress the time taken for conducting negotiations, particularly with time-tested Russian companies, a standard contract document is being framed. As a result, the negotiations will not have to be conducted from scratch for each defence item.

The system will work in tandem with the ``fast track'' mechanism introduced in October last year for certain emergency cases — fully empowered teams will be sent abroad to conduct negotiations, take decisions on the spot and return with the hardware.

The Government has also decided to waive the need for fresh tenders (request for proposals) if more quantity of the same item is needed within a year. The additional quantity will be loaded on to the amount allotted to successful firms in the earlier tender.

``We must realise that certain new procedures are desirable in the context of the changed security scenario,'' Mr. Narain said, while inaugurating a seminar on reforms in the Indian and Russian defence industries.

The bedrock of these changes is the structural alteration brought about in the defence procurement machinery on the basis of several studies conducted after the Kargil experience.

A representative Defence Procurement Board (DPB) has been set up in view of the feeling expressed by the armed forces that the procurement process is neither up to the mark nor is it quick enough to meet their needs on a real-time basis.

The integrated DPB, according to Mr. Narain, has speeded up purchases by two times. The Army purchases went up from 65 cases to 131, the Navy's from eight to 15 and the Air Force's from 10 to 24 systems.

Conceding that media criticism also compelled the Government to make changes, Mr. Narain said the basic purpose was to find a middle path between the twin societal requirements of maintaining a certain amount of secrecy on the one hand and making the purchase procedure more transparent from the public point of view, on the other.

He also spoke about other broadbased and integrated institutional structures that are assisting in across-the-table discussions leading to faster procurements.

``We find that with these revised procedures, last year's capital equipment purchases stood at Rs. 16,000 crores as against the previous year's Rs. 12,000 crores. We are confident of utilising most of the Rs. 21,000 crores allocated this year.''

Mr. Narain also referred to the three-tier planning system — a 15-year long-term policy planning (LTPP) to be carried out for all the three services by the recently created Chief of Integrated Defence Staff ; five-year plans by each service which should be consistent with LTPP and; annual plans conforming to the budget.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National