The Hindu : National : `Examine defence purchase norms afresh'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 27, 2005

National

National

`Examine defence purchase norms afresh'

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: A parliamentary panel has asked the Government to make a fresh examination of the structural and procedural aspects in defence purchases. It expressed unhappiness over the working of the Defence Procurement Board (DPB), set up by the previous National Democratic Alliance Government to speed up purchases.

In its report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, the Standing Committee on Defence recommended that a study group be constituted to examine the entire gamut of defence procurement norms and suggest appropriate modifications by identifying the bottlenecks.

Cases pending

The DPB deals with the acquisition of urgently required items under the fast-track procedure. However, out of 75 cases approved by the DPB over the last three years, contracts were signed in only 51 including 48 under the fast-track procedure. One-third of the cases are, therefore, still pending with the Defence Ministry for implementation.

The committee said the DPB had "miserably failed" to speed up the procurement process, thereby defeating the purpose for which it was set up. It had even added one more tier in the clearance of defence proposals.

The Government, however, pointed out that an analysis of 62 cases approved by the DPB under the fast-track procedure showed that 79 per cent of the cases had been contracted.

Deliveries in 63 per cent of the cases had been completed and partially completed in 29 per cent. Thus, the overall deliveries in 92 per cent of the cases contracted under the fast-track procedure had been completed or were underway.

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