Services seek more say in military procurement

By Atul Aneja

NEW DELHI, JUNE 17. The tussle between the service headquarters and the defence bureaucracy has intensified with the three services demanding a greater say in decision-making on military procurements.

According to highly-placed Government sources, the tri-service Chiefs of Staff Committee (CCS) has written a note to the Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, that the defence services should be represented at the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) when decisions on procurement are taken.

According to the current practice, the representatives of the three services head the Price Negotiating Committees (PNC) in their field. This is a shift from the past practice when the PNCs were usually headed by a civil servant.

The PNC is meant to recommend the price at which the items under consideration for each of the three services should be procured. But its active role in the procurement loop virtually ends here.

The PNC recommendations are routed again to the financial wing of the Defence Ministry headed by a bureaucrat. Decisions on procurement above a fixed ceiling are thereafter finalised by the CCS which is headed by the Prime Minister.

As of now, Vice-Admiral Arun Prakash is heading the PNC which is looking at the procurement of the Russian aircraft carrier, Admiral Gorshkov, and the Barak missile of Israeli make. While the Russians are willing to transfer their warship free of cost, the expenditure incurred on refitting the ship as well as the creation of related infrastructure is expected to touch Rs. 2,000 crores.

The Deputy Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal S.G. Inamdar, heads the PNC on the possible purchase of Advanced Jet Trainers. The deal for around 60 aircraft is likely to cost the exchequer over Rs. 5,000 crores.

The Deputy Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Shamsher Mehta, is heading the PNC on the T-90 tanks. The Government is looking at procuring around 300 T-90s and the deal is likely hover at around Rs. 2,700 crores.

The prominent presence of services representatives, who are aware of the urgency of inducting equipment at the PNC, is expected to speed up decision making on procurement. The services, however, are now keen that the CCS is also directly briefed by them on procurement - an area which has so far been formally or informally the domain of the defence bureaucracy alone.

The activism shown by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) on procurement has also played a role in the services' demand for a higher profile in decision-making on this subject. Since they now head the PNCs, the services are keen that their version on procurement is directly conveyed at the highest levels and not left to the bureaucrats alone. This is also to ensure that the services are not dragged into any deal which might become controversial in the future.

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