Central Vigilance Commissioner P. Shankar said the mega Air India-Boeing deal would have been ideally suited to trying out new concepts like having a ‘‘reverse auction’ or for the inclusion of an ‘‘integrity pact’’ as part of the contract as several countries were doing.His suggestions assume importance in the wake of Airbus Industrie demanding that the Rs 30,000 crore Air India-Boeing deal be re-valuated by CVC. According to Shankar, ‘‘Like other ministries, the civil aviation ministry too had been advised by us to have a reverse auction for major deals. I understand that before the Boeing deal was finalised, CVC’s suggestion was discussed in the ministry, but they felt the time was too short for it to be tried.’’Explaining the concept, Shankar said a reverse auction entailed all the requirements and specifications to be fed into computers and for the two or three bidders to make their bids in separate rooms at the same time. ‘‘But a reverse auction can succeed only when the buyer is confident there will be cartelisation among bidders,’’ he clarified. ‘‘In my view, it would have been ideally suited for Air India’s purchase of 50 airplanes.’’As far as the ‘‘integrity pact’’ was concerned, he said the concept was being popularised in India by Transparency International and this entailed both the buyers and sellers signing a legal assurance that no kickbacks or bribes would either be given or demanded. He said Transparency International, along with CVC, were in the process of prorogating the concept in government organisations like he Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).The head of Transparency International, (Retd) Admiral R.H. Tahiliani, too said the signing of an integrity pact by Air India and Boeing would have saved situations like competitors crying foul. ‘‘There are other government departments and ministries which have assured us that the integrity pact would be signed as part of major deals but we do not want to talk about that at this stage,’’ he cautioned.
