NEW DELHI: The government on Wednesday put on hold all further payments to AgustaWestland, the UK-based company accused of paying kickbacks in the Rs 3,546-crore deal for VVIP helicopters inked by India in 2010, in a grim bid to contain the political fallout from the fresh scam to have hit UPA-II.
AgustaWestland, the subsidiary of Italian military giant Finmeccanica, has also been asked to explain if it had paid any commissions to middlemen in the deal in the light of filings in an Italian court. According to government sources, ministry of defence (MoD) has written to the company asking him to state if it paid any individual or firms any sort of commission in the VVIP helicopter deal.
The allegation that bribes were paid to bag the Indian contract marks a violation of the anti-graft "integrity clause" in country's defence deals which is liable to be punished with cancellation of the order, blacklisting of the offender, stiff financial penalty and even criminal prosecution.
The decision to block future payment represented a decisive move, perfectly commensurate with the need to contain the political fallout from the latest scandal to have hit the beleaguered UPA. The government has by now paid up a little over 50% of the total payment, and a fresh tranche was set to be released this month. "We have put on hold all future payments until we complete the review of the contract", said a senior government official.
Sources said the government has not taken a final decision on stopping the future deliveries of the remaining nine helicopters—three of them have already been inducted by the IAF. The next delivery of three helicopters is expected in March, with the remaining six to be delivered by July. "We would have completed our review by then," said a senior MoD official.
Significantly, defence minister A K Antony, stressed that government would lose no money if it were to scrap the contract. "The Indian government will not lose a single pie. As per the defence procurement procedure and the integrity pact signed with the company, we can even get back the entire money paid to the vendor, apart from making it liable for criminal action," said Antony: a statement which suggested that government could travel the whole distance if political considerations required so.
Government's swift response came amid apprehensions that the bribery charge could snowball into a fresh political trouble for the UPA government, with the Opposition leaping upon Italy's probe into payment of bribes by Finmeccanica, country's aerospace and defence giant, to swing India's order for helicopters for its VIP fleet. Both BJP and Left attacked the government, screaming scandal.
India's defence secretary Shashikant Sharma asked the Indian ambassador in Italy to formally procure the Italian court documents detailing alleged payment of 51 million euros as kickbacks in the deal for the 12 swank AW-101 helicopters with self-defence suites. The documents are expected to be key in the MoD's review of the contract. Indications are that the MoD may initiate tough action based on the evidence in the document.
"We cannot put the deal on hold based on media reports. We need authentic information, so that our interests, financial and military, are not compromised," a senior official said. He also pointed out that the government had been seeking formal information from the Indian embassies for long but until now nothing had emerged.
All further payments to AgustaWestland put on hold
This article
All further payments to AgustaWestland put on hold
can be opened in url
http://newstelestich.blogspot.com/2013/02/all-further-payments-to-agustawestland.html
All further payments to AgustaWestland put on hold
