Govt failed to follow procurement rules while buying ugustaWestland copters for VVIPs.
The ministry of defence deviated from procurement rules while purchasing of 12 VVIP helicopters from Italian firm, AgustaWestland, worth Rs3,727 crore, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report tabled in parliament on Tuesday.
The report said the benchmark cost of Rs4,871.5 crore, a price set by a committee formed as per the defence procurement procedure (DPP), for the choppers was unreasonably high. The price recommended by the committee was 22.80% more than Rs3,966 crore quoted by AgustaWestland.
“The defence ministry deviated from the 2006 DPP and the tender for the deal issued in September 2006. The frequent deviation from the DPP rules was not pursued with “extreme caution and in exceptional circumstances”, noted the report.
The report highlighted that helicopter supplied by the AgustaWestalnd could only fly up to an altitude of 4,572 meter, whereas as per the initial request for proposal (RFP) issued in March 2002 for replacement of Mi-8 copters, a mandatory altitude requirement of 6,000 metre as set. The first RFP was cancelled after Prime Minister’s Office raised objections as it lead to single-vendor situation.
However, in the revised RFP issued in 2006, the clause for mandatory altitude requirement was changed to 4,500 metres. A further change in the RFP introducing requirement of cabin height of at least 1.8 metre also resulted in reduced competition thus helping AugustWestland firm, as per the report.
“The lowering of altitude requirement was against the inescapable operational requirement of 6,000 metre for transportation to many areas in North and North East,” said the report. While the first RFP was issued to 11 vendors, the revised RFP was issued to only six vendors.
The auditing agency also raised serious objections on the decision taken in 2007 by the then IAF chief to conduct field trials of the helicopters outside the country. As per the report, the field evaluation trials were not conducted on the actual machines but representative helicopter.
Earlier, the defence ministry on two occasions had rejected the proposal of conducting chopper trials outside India. “The reasons adduced for conducting field evaluation trials at vendor specified location instead of in India are not convincing enough,” said defence minister AK Antony in his letter.
The ministry of defence reacting to the report that will now go to the Public Accounts Committee said, “The defence ministry has already asked the CBI to investigate the deal. Subsequently, the federal agency has registered a case in this matter against a former IAF chief and some private persons,” said defence ministry official.
On cancelling the deal, the defence ministry maintained, “We are waiting for the findings of the CBI. Till CBI gives its report, no decision will be taken to cancel the deal, So far, we have already put the deal on hold,” defence ministry official added
The report also hauled up the ministry of defence for delaying purchase of the helicopters for more than 10 years.
Due to this Indian Air Force had to face operational problems as the force had to use ageing helicopters. The CBI and Italian agencies are investigating the allegations of AugustaWestland bribing Indian government officials to bag the multi-crore helicopter deals.
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