25 defence deals during Kargil war sent to CBI

New Delhi, Aug 10: Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said that 25 defence deals during Operation 'Vijay' (Kargil operations) were referred to the CBI.

''Out of these, 13 cases were sent back to Ministry of Defence by the CBI as no criminality was detected in these cases. Of the remaining 12 cases, seven cases are still under scrutiny.

Preliminary complaints have been registered in five cases, of which one case has been converted into a regular case,'' he told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

The Minister said no time frame can be indicated for investigation of the cases as the same depends on time required for collection of evidence by the investigating agency.

Mr Mukerjee said that defence procurement is undertaken as per Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) 2005 (for capital acquisitions) and Defence Procurement Manual (DPM) 2005 (for items under the revenue budget head), both of which are available on the Defence Ministry's website.

He said some of the provisions in DPP 2005 include making Qualitative Requirments (QRs) more broad so as to avoid single vendor situations, signing of Integrity Pactx for purchase over Rs 300 crore and a broad timeframe for completion of different procurement activities.

Apart from this, some of the provisions of DPM 2005 include request for proposals, both for indigenous and foreign procurement enumerating short listing and award criteria, uniformity in interpretation of various contracting clauses and issues, clear time frame for each stage and process of procurement so as to cut down the delays and bring in accountability, as well as general guidelines for assessing reasonability of prices, a summary of CVC guidelines and banking instruments.

UNI