S'pore Technologies hopes to
be taken off from Indian Govt's blacklist
New Delhi, Nov. 11: Two banned companies — a Singaporean firm
vying for a billion-dollar order for artillery guns and an Israeli
arms supplier — are hoping for a reprieve after the government
today said it has amended the rules under which they were
blacklisted in June.
The defence ministry has amended the rules that may allow the
companies to participate in trials and tests but not to conclude
contracts before the CBI completes its investigation.
The two firms are on a list of seven with whom the defence
ministry froze all business after a preliminary CBI investigation
suspected they had bribed the former chief of the Ordnance
Factories’ Board, Sudipta Ghosh, who was arrested in Calcutta in
May.
Defence ministry sources said the rules were being announced
after they were vetted by the Central Vigilance Commission and the
law ministry.
“It is not our intention to favour this or that company. We are
just saying this is how the companies will be dealt with because we
have had business with them,” an officer said.
Singapore Technologies had to fly back two ultra-light
howitzers, named Pegasus, after they landed in Mumbai in a
specially chartered aircraft on June 5, the day A.K. Antony’s
defence ministry announced the list of companies it was banning
just after Ghosh’s arrest.
The decision froze the trials for the artillery guns for which
ST flew in the howitzers. The freezing of business with the
companies hit the armed forces hard.
The Indian Army, for example, has not acquired a single piece of
heavy artillery in 22 years and a Rs 1,200 crore project to make
ammunition for its Bofors guns in collaboration with Israeli
Military Industries (IMI) is delayed by more than six years.
Israeli Military Industries was contracted in March this year —
a month before Ghosh retired in April — to partner the Ordnance
Factory in Nalanda for a Rs 1,200-crore project to make bi-modular
propellant charges — ammunition for the army’s Bofors guns. It is
also in a joint venture with the Ordnance Factory in Khamaria in
Madhya Pradesh to make “cargo ammunition”, cluster bombs designed
to maim.
Singapore Technologies, and a subsidiary, ST Kinetics, apart
from participating in the competition for ultra-light howitzers
with its Pegasus gun, is also involved with ordnance factories in
producing combat vehicles.
After the services’ headquarters were prompted by the ministry
to hasten acquisitions, they sought directions on how to deal with
the blacklisted companies. Antony referred the issue to the Central
Vigilance Commission and the law ministry before amending the
rules.
The new rules will govern business with companies in accordance
with the “Integrity Pact” (no-bribery clause) where contracts have
been signed.
SUJAN DUTTA
Full Text
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