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DEFENCE: THE ESTABLISHMENT
Porous System
Despite incriminating
evidence, only one of the four serving army officers (Major-General P.S.K.
Choudhary) came to Army Headquarters the morning after the tapes were
screened to file a written admission of his guilt. In a two-page, handwritten
letter, he confessed that he had taken the money but maintained he had
not traded it for any favour. A three-member court of inquiry, headed
by a lieutenant-general is now grilling Choudhary and the other officers-Colonel
Anil Sehgal, Brigadier Iqbal Singh and Major-General M.S. Ahluwalia-but
a lot more will have to be done, for the spycam shows that the system
is porous and open to manipulation at all levels. Officials of the Military
Intelligence are now probing the assets of army officers and looking into
how they have acquired houses in posh localities in Delhi. Choudhary is
suspected of having a house in Vasant Vihar worth Rs 1.86 crore, according
to the middlemen interviewed by Tehelka.
Another probe headed by a joint secretary is
on in the MoD to look specifically at procurement procedures, but this
is the third time that such an exercise is being undertaken without too
many lessons having been learnt from the earlier inquiries. Defence middlemen
were first banned by former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi after the Bofors
scandal, but the system continues to be manipulated.
THE FOURTH HORSEMAN
The Government proposes
to appoint a chief of defence staff to act as a single-point military
adviser. His role:
# Coordinate all perspective
plans of the armed forces.
# Head the country's nuclear forces.
# No operational command of the forces
which will continue to be vested in the three service chiefs.
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| Army chief S. Padmanabhan |
Air Force chief A.Y Tipnis |
Naval chief Sushil Kumar |
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PROCUREMENT CLEAN-UP OLD SYSTEM
Each force had its own weapons
equipment directorate for procurement.
Too many agencies with different hierarchies
and no coordination.
Resulted in delays and lack of transparency,
with little accountability.
Despite ban on middlemen, system went underground
and flourished.
PROPOSED SYSTEM
All the three directorates will come under
a Procurement Board.
All key agencies involved will now come
under the Board.
Clear line of decision making and a degree
of corporatisation.
More rational policy that will recognise
agents but with checks.
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Fernandes knows this only too well. "I faced
a lot of pressure from politicians of all hues," he conceded after
his resignation, and these related to minor things like the selection
of packaging material for weapons-wood, not metal-when a proposal to shift
to metal boxes was mooted. These letters, written by well known MPs, will
now be tabled on the floor of the House. Last year, when similar allegations
were made, Fernandes had asked the CVC to probe all deals over Rs 75 crore
signed after 1989. In August last year, the CVC submitted the interim
findings and recommended certain procedural changes. It was to give a
more detailed report by March 31, but because of the Tehelka exposure
CVC chief N. Vittal says it would be ready by the end of April. Vittal
refuses to divulge more but says, "It is time that the sacred cow
of defence purchases was brought out from behind the purdah and made more
transparent. The current system is too secretive and results in delay.
This is an ideal set of factors for corruption to set in."
Vittal's tone is ominous as it means his report
will be tough and may confirm some of the fears highlighted by the scam.
There is clearly a need to plug the loopholes. For, the most worrying
aspect is, as retired Air Marshal B.D. Jayal says, "Big deals always
saw corruption at the highest levels. Now it has percolated down to the
uniformed class." The hole is deep and the Government will find it
difficult to dig itself out of it quickly.
-with Raj Chengappa
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