Pranab for transparency in defence deal

In an attempt to bring about more transparency in arms purchases, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has suggested the involvement of country's watchdog organisations like the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) in the arms procurement board.

"What the Prime Minister has suggested. I am going to institutionalise arrangements by bringing in bodies like the CAG and the CVC to whet proposed procurement. This is a proposal," Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in an interview.

Mukherjee said the government was in the process of reconstituting these procurement boards in his ministry to make the process more transparent and speedy and to cut the red-tape in arms deals.

The NDA government had brought in a new system of procurement on the recommendations of the committee which went into the aftermath Kargil conflict, which were approved by the group of ministers.

Under the system, a four-tier organisation came into being with a Defence Acquisition Council headed by the defence minister on top of the pyramid of the three services and the ministry's procurement boards.

The minister said the new system was set up with a clause for a review of its performance after two years and what the present government proposed to do was to remove the bottlenecks to make the process more transparent.

He said the involvement of representatives of the CAG and the CVC would cut back the time spent on getting the arms deals vetted from these independent organisations.

Asked if his government was reviewing a string of high- profile deals running into billions of dollars entered into by the previous government, the minister said: "Yes, we are examining some of the proposals on which I thought some discussions is needed."

On the vetting of the NDA government's deals, he said in the process of examining these deals, what had come to the fore so far was that the movement of sensitive files in the ministry had been very slow.

Asked to elaborate, he said apparently the officials were a bit wary in processing the deals. On a couple of files he had asked for some clarifications and discussions which he thought were needed.

To a question, Mukherjee said he had not found "any substantial aberration" in purchases by the NDA government so far.

He admitted that defence deals with the US were a bit slow as some post-Pokhran sanctions were still in vogue.

The minister disclosed that a high-level committee headed by Vijay Kelkar had been set up by his ministry to go in for wider private sector participation in the defence industry.

He said a bigger role for the private sector was part of moves for modernisation and indigenisation of the defence industry to which the new UPA government was committed.

He said the private sector role was also being seen as many international armament majors were reluctant to do business with the government and it would be easier for them to deal as one company with another as was the system prevalent in the west.

Mukherjee said the thrust of the government was on getting technology transfer. "We want to do bulk armament platform purchases and in lieu get transfer of technology and license for local manufacture".