Arms purchase policy may be reviewed: Antony

A day after the Comptroller and Auditor General dug holes in the country's arms procurement process, Defence Minister A K Antony on Friday indicated a mid-term review of the policy might be carried out to leave no scope for corruption.

"If we feel that there is an urgent need to review the policy, we will not wait for two years," Antony told members of Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to his ministry.

The government carries out a review of the defence procurement process every two years to make changes gained from experience and to incorporate new contract clauses for probity.

"Our effort will be to make the procedure foolproof and to avoid any scope for corruption," the minister told the members who cautioned that with some big-ticket purchases of weapon platforms coming up, utmost transparency should be ensured.

Agreeing with the members of Parliament, Antony said defence acquisitions were a 'complex and intricate process' and each step had to taken with care to ensure the armed forces get the best value for money.

Stressing that the time frame

for weapons acquisitions had to be cut, the defence minister said to help achieve this, the process of evaluation as well as acquisition will henceforth be taken up simultaneously by the defence acqusition council, which is headed by him.

Patting the defence procurment policy, framed in 2002 and revised by present United Progressive Alliance government in 2006, Antony said far reaching reforms had been carried out. He said generic requirements of the three services were now being placed on defence websites to enhance transparency and generate vendor registration through internet.

Antony said similarly increasing transparency was also being done in the conduct of field trials for equipment evaluation. Cutting across party affiliation, members asked the government to put in place suitable mechanism to ensure that no corruption took place in defence deals.

Expressing serious concern over the revelations coming out in the naval war room leak case, members suggested that security be beefed up in all defence establishments. The members said that in changing global and national scenario, private sector should be encouraged to play a greater role in production of defence equipment.