The Hindu : National : `Kargil purchases made after cessation of hostilities'

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Wednesday, Apr 06, 2005

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National

`Kargil purchases made after cessation of hostilities'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, APRIL 5. The Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) initial report on Kargil purchases (Operation Vijay) had highlighted that nearly all the supplies worth over Rs. 2,000 crores were either supplied or contracted and received well after the cessation of hostilities in July '99 and "therefore in no way supported the operations.''

Asked to assess the effectiveness of the defence purchase system and identify the major cases of irregularities, the CAG said the Government paid an additional Rs. 44.21 crores in 35 cases by relaxing rules and procedures such as waiving the submission of financial bank guarantees by suppliers, faster decisions by purchase committees and expediting foreign exchange release procedures.

Supplies worth Rs. 260 crores did not meet the quality standards, ammunition worth about Rs. 100 crores was shelf expired and excess purchases amounted to over Rs. 100 crores. Ammunition worth over Rs. 300 crores was contracted on grounds of operational emergency even though defence public sector undertakings and ordnance factories were manufacturing those items. Further, delays at various stages of processing hindered timely deployment of stores worth Rs. 200 crores.

"Thus while critical supplies of clothing, ammunition and arms could not reach the troops during the operation, an amount of Rs. 1,046 crores, almost half of the total, entirely in foreign exchange, was spent fruitlessly, breaching established principles of propriety,'' noted the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee which examined the CAG report.

When the committee sought to examine the report of the Central Vigilance Commission on Kargil purchases, the Ministry of Defence, then headed by George Fernandes, took the stand that the report could not be given as "it would be prejudicial to the interests of the State.'' This led to a stalemate between the PAC and the Government with the former resolving "unanimously that the report should be made available to them by the Ministry of Defence in the context of examination of the CAG report on review of procurement for "Operation Vijay — Army'' which deals with defence procurements'' and the latter stonewalling the request.

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