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In a new twist to the AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter scandal, it has now come to light that the helicopter design and manufacturing company never returned the full down payment made by the Indian authorities for procuring the 12 choppers.
According to television news channel NDTV, AgustaWestland still owes 106 million Euro (Rs 802 crore) for three of the VVIP helicopters which had been delivered to the Indian Air Force prior to the eruption of the kickback scandal. The three choppers had flown 556 hours for the IAF by then.
The Indian government had invoked the integrity clause within the agreement after allegations of corruption hit headlines. Even though earlier reports claimed that the government had recovered Rs 3,600 crore – the entire value of the agreement – after it cancelled the deal. But, as per the NDTV report, that wasn’t the case.
There are also questions being raised about the way the VVIP helicopter deal with AgustaWestland was executed.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India, in 2013, had pointed out several procedural lapses including how the government of India was actually willing to pay AgustaWestland more than the company had demanded for the sale of the helicopters.
“The benchmarked cost worked out by the Contract Negotiation Committee was Rs 4877.5 crore as against the estimated cost of Rs 793 crore approved by the ministry in January 2006. This was more than six times the estimated cost. Further, the offered cost of the vendor was Rs 3966 crore. This was much below the benchmarked cost of Rs 4877.5 crore. Thus, the benchmarked cost was higher by 22.80 per cent,” the CAG noted.
The controversial deal to buy VVIP choppers and the alleged bribes paid in clinching it have triggered a political storm after an Italian court “cited handwritten references” to Sonia, her political secretary Ahmed Patel and former Air Chief S P Tyagi by a middleman in a judgment that convicted the helicopter company’s chief executive.