House panel cautions defence ministry against fast track acquisitions

Pulling up the Ministry of Defence over the import of robotic de-mining equipment, a Parliamentary Committee on Tuesday asked it and the three services to use fast track procedures for acquisition of weapons systems only in "emergent unavoidable conditions".

Stating that 40 sets of the equipment were imported 16 months after Operation Parakaram, when 97 per cent of the 10 lakh mines had already been manually removed on the Indo-Pak border, the Public Accounts Committee has asserted that evoking fast track procedures in peace time led to payment of higher price and absence of equipment being tested in Indian conditions.

Though the import of robotic de-mining equipment at a cost of Euro 19.05 million (Rs 103.91 crore) from a Denmark firm was concluded in March 2003, the delivery of the equipment, sought on fast track basis, was stipulated over a period of nine months.

The committee also found it strange that the army had not agreed to the vendor's proposal for a shorter delivery period of four months.

"It is pertinent to note that while Operation Parakaram was through in 2001, the army sent the proposal for de-mining equipment on fast-track basis only in 2002," the committee observed in its latest report for the year 2006-2007 tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.

"Needless to say that army authorities woke up late in the matter of procurement of fast track equipment for de-mining," the PAC said.