The central government can withhold from the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament the chief vigilance commissioner's report on defence deals, former CVC N Vittal told rediff.com on Thursday.
Vittal, now living in retirement in Chennai, refused to elaborate on the subject because "now it has become a political matter. The Official Secrets Act binds me. I cannot talk further".
The PAC's 54th report, tabled in both Houses of Parliament by its chairman Buta Singh on Wednesday, said: "In the face of refusal by the Ministry of Defence in supplying the CVC report, the PAC regret their inability to give their findings on the defence procurement transactions reported in the CAG's report on Review of Procurement for Operation Vijay [Kargil War]."
The opposition on Friday raised a din in Parliament over this disclosure. The CVC's report on corruption in defence deals was submitted to the government on March 31, 2001.
After becoming defence minister in 1998, George Fernandes had announced that all major defence deals since 1989 would be probed, for there were allegations of multi-million-dollar kickbacks.
A confidante of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and member of Parliament told rediff.com: "We will not relent on this matter. The issue of making available the Vittal report is a serious one. We will make it an election issue. The issue of the PAC versus MoD is going to prevail over all other issues."
Before retiring, Vittal had spoken about his report on defence deals to rediff.com
He had said, "We were asked to inquire the deals after 1989. We were asked to look into whether there were middlemen after 1989 too; Twenty allegations made by Jayant Malhoutra, MP; Rear Admiral Suhas Purohit's allegations in court about corruption in the navy; and lastly, we were asked to examine the deals of purchases over Rs 75 crore from April 17, 1989, when the decision to ban middlemen was taken."
Fernandes had spoken to Vittal on telephone on February 6, 2000.
Eight days later the defence ministry sent a communication to the CVC's office.
On August 7, 2000, when the CVC was to submit his preliminary report, the Tehelka scandal broke out and Fernandes had to resign.
Vittal told rediff.com, "Our report is secret. Tehelka used a modern method while the CVC used the standard method of checking files. Crooks are cleverer. They don't put their names on paper.
As CVC, I have found that ministers, secretaries and chairmen are not touched, only lower clerks are punished."
The defence ministry did send data pertaining to 76 defence deals for examination by the CVC in February 2000. Based on that data, Vittal's team prepared a report relating to contracts individually exceeding Rs 75 crore.
The report was submitted at the end of March to Jaswant Singh, who had taken over from Fernandes temporarily.
On Thursday Vittal said, "Some action has been taken on basis of the report. I request you to not ask me any further questions."
