Defence deals only after CVC, CAG nod: Pranab

‘‘During the first meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, the Prime Minister directed that we should try and get the expert advice of the CVC and the CAG on overall procurement procedures and indigenisation programmes,’’ he said, adding that he would get in touch with the two agencies on the issue soon.

‘‘But my job is not to do any witchhunting. I am not going to have a 10-year or a 15-year omnibus inquiry. That (previous govt’s probes) was nothing but political vendetta, and a bit of eyewash, which was aimed at diverting attention from what was going on. We will order an inquiry only if something particular comes to our mind.’’

‘‘If the agencies examine hundreds of files, they lose focus. This has led to a lot of demoralisation in the Armed Forces, and many decisions, which could have been taken, were not. That is why we have this spillover.’’

Highlighting the pattern of delays that he noticed after examining MoD files and detailed briefing, Mukherjee said: ‘‘There was a considerable slowdown of acquisition. It has all got bunched up… But to some extent, the demoralisation has been overcome. Their (MoD top brass) point was there was a lot of uncertainty about availability of funds. Now I have cleared the air and they should be working overtime on payment schedules.’’

Revealing that the MoD was on the verge of finalising a series of contracts, Mukherjee said, ‘‘I have told MoD officials that they have seven months to finalise contracts in different areas and make payment schedules. Even for ammunition contracts, we will not have a rollback unless a company has been blacklisted, or something like that.’’

The Minister, however, declined to name specific companies or contracts, as it would affect MoD’s bargaining capability.

According to him, two trends have been noticed in procurement delays: time spent in negotiations and the fast pace of change in technology that has often been ignored.

‘‘Over the last three years, around Rs 24,000 crore has been surrendered by the MoD. That money is lost. Now, the key is to expeditiously finalise Defence contracts.’’

The Minister added that there was no point in passing the buck. ‘‘Now, decisions have to be taken to the best of your conscience. There may be some feedback from supporters and associates but the final decision is yours. In the acquisition business, sometimes you have limited options. The approach

I have adopted is for acquisitions to be need-based.

In a developing economy, there will sometimes be a gap between actual availability and desired requirement.’’

The Defence Minister justified the huge outflow from the annual budget of Rs 77,000 crore towards payment of salaries and allowances for members of the Armed Forces, as well as change in distribution of revenue component and capital component of the DRDO outlay.

‘‘Many items have been transferred from the revenue list to the capital list and the total increase is to the tune of Rs 1,000 crores,’’ he said.