Dec/09/2011

Antony orders probe into controversial Rs. 500-crore contract

Army Headquarters orders investigation into leakage of documents to The Hindu

Defence Minister A.K. Antony has ordered the Army to begin an internal investigation based onThe Hindu's revelation that possible corruption in the procurement of Rs. 500-crore worth of equipment had compromised its ability to use satellite images of enemy troop movements and assets.

Sitanshu Kar, Additional Director-General in-charge of media relations at the Ministry of Defence, told journalists on Thursday that Mr. Antony ordered the inquiry first thing in the morning, after meeting with officials.

Mr. Kar said he could not comment on who would carry out the investigation, and by when its findings were expected to be made.

The Hindu had reported on Thursday that the Army's image-analysis capabilities, which allow it to cull information of military relevance from satellite images, were hit by a controversial 2008 contract.

The contract relieved the supplier, Rolta, of its responsibility of providing periodic upgrades of the software — though the Army continued to pay crores of rupees to the company.

Documents obtained by The Hindu also established that the military officials involved in giving the contract to Rolta went on to work with the firm — raising fears of conflict of interest.

Highly placed military sources said the Army Headquarters had ordered a simultaneous investigation of how documents related to the contract were leaked to The Hindu.

Defence experts said The Hindu's expose pointed to serious problems in defence acquisition practices, which successive governments were reluctant to tackle head on.

Poorly conceived procedures

Commodore C. Uday Bhaskar, Director of the National Maritime Foundation and a former director of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, said the problem lay in poorly conceived bureaucratic procedures put in place after the Bofors scandal, which was exposed by The Hindu in 1987-1988.

“If the armed forces buy a lemon,” he explained, “it is obviously either because of incompetence or corruption. Now, though the post-Bofors system is ostensibly designed to prevent malpractices, in fact privileges incompetence and thus opens the floodgates to corruption.”

“What we really need is to create a cadre of young officers who are competent to make the kinds of highly technical judgments military acquisitions need today, not committees of bureaucrats with no specialist judgment,” he said. “Task force after task force have made thoughtful, well-considered recommendations to reform the defence acquisition system.”

‘Fast-track probe'

Brigadier (retd.) Gurmeet Kanwal, who heads the Centre for Land Warfare Studies, called for expeditious investigations into the allegations, saying delays had hurt the armed forces' ability to acquire necessary equipment. Firms found guilty of misconduct could be subjected to financial penalties, he said.

DDCA to present Rs. 25 lakh to record-breaker Sehwag

The DDCA today announced a cash prize of Rs 25 lakh for Virender Sehwag, who etched his name into the record books following his knock of 219 runs against the West Indies in the fourth one—dayer at Indore’s Holkar Stadium.

“The Delhi and District Cricket Association has decided to give Rs 25 lakh award to Virender Sehwag as a mark of respect and honour for making a world record in ODIs,” DDCA general secretary Sneh Bansal said in a release.

The swashbuckling opener, who is currently leading India team in the absence of M S Dhoni, created history by hitting the highest—ever ODI score as he edged past Sachin Tendulkar’s record total of 200 not out, scored last year against South Africa at Gwalior’s Captain Roop Singh Stadium.

India amassed a huge 418 runs against the Caribbeans, surpassing their previous best of 414 against Sri Lanka at Rajkot in 2009, courtesy to some lusty blows by the ’Delhi—dasher’, who smashed seven sixes and 25 fours to bring up only the second double ton in the history of one—day cricket.

The West Indies, in reply, could just muster only 265 to go down to the hosts by 153 runs and lose the series.

India are up 3—1 in the five—match rubber with the last ODI to be played in Chennai on December 11.

Blow to Aadhaar project as Bill is rejected

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has rejected the National Identification Authority of India (NIAI) Bill, which was meant to give a legal backing to the Aadhaar project and its aim of using biometrics to create a unique identity for every resident of India.

Sources in the Committee say the Bill has been rejected in its current form on the grounds of the project's high cost, as well as concerns regarding national security, privacy and duplication of the National Population Register's (NPR) activities. One major sticking point was reportedly the Aadhaar project's ambition to enrol every “resident” of the country, rather than every “citizen.”

The Committee, headed by Yashwant Sinha (BJP), is likely to table its report in Parliament next week.

Congress MP Rashid Alvi submitted a dissent note at the Committee meeting on Thursday, suggesting that while recommendations could be sent to the government, the Bill should not be rejected outright.

However, the sources indicated that Mr. Alvi himself agreed with most of the Committee's problems with the Bill and that there were serious differences with the government itself regarding the Aadhaar project.

The Home Ministry has raised concerns that Aadhaar's biometric data collection and verification does not meet security criteria.

There has also been a turf clash with the Home Ministry's National Population Register which is also documenting photographs, fingerprints and iris scans of all residents.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, Minister of State for Home Affairs Jitendra Singh said the NPR database would be sent to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for de-duplication.

The UIDAI was only generating unique identity numbers and communicating it in a letter, but it was the NPR that intends to issue Resident Identity Cards, he emphasised.

So far, the UIDAI, headed by the former Infosys chief, Nandan Nilekani, has issued about 6 crore Aadhaar numbers, and over 10 crore people have been enrolled into the system.

The project's budget is Rs. 1,660 crore, of which over a third has already been spent.

However, there is still no legal parliamentary backing for the project, a glitch that was sought to be retrospectively corrected by the NIAI Bill.

Chartered Accountants meet today

Kochi, Dec. 8:  

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is organising its Southern India Sub-Regional & Diamond Jubilee conference here at the IMA Hall on Friday. Mr Paul Antony, Chairman, Cochin Port Trust, will inaugurate the conference. Mr Shanmukha Sundaram, Chairman, SIRC of ICAI, Chennai, will be the Guest of Honour. Mr Saji Mathew, Chairman, Ernakulam Branch of SIRC of ICAI, will preside over the function. Mr S.Murali, Secretary, SIRC of ICAI; Mr Babu Abraham Kallivayalil, Member, SIRC of ICAI; Mr V.X.Jose, Member, SIRC of ICAI, Chennai, will felicitate. Various topics of economic importance are to be discussed in the conference. Around 1,000 Chartered Accountants from all over South India are expected to participate in the conference.