In a bid to ensure transparency in government projects, Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has made mandatory an integrity pact between the Delhi government and a vendor in all contracts exceeding Rs 10 crore, officials said on Tuesday.
The CBI had registered a preliminary enquiry in 2016 which was later converted into a regular case, they added.
The ministry also decided to dispense with the requirement of the Integrity Pact Bank Guarantee to reduce the financial burden on the Indian defence industry, a move aimed at promoting domestic manufacturing.
The approved proposals included "procurement of night sight (image intensifier), light vehicles GS 4X4, air defence fire control radar (light) and GSAT-7B satellite," it mentioned.
The IEMs could be those former officers of government and PSUs who have retired from top management positions and also eminent persons and executives from the private sector.
The 'Integrity Pact' was signed by GAIL Chairman and Managing Director U D Choubey and TII Chairman R H Tahiliani.
In a first, India has seized a bank guarantee worth Rs 224 crore furnished by an Israeli defence vendor for breach of integrity pact after the company was blacklisted for alleged involvement in graft cases related to ordnance factories.
When the IAF veterans' bail petition came up for hearing, in an unprecedented move, senior serving and retired Air Marshals and Air Vice Marshals rallied behind the accused officers and appeared before the court to give sureties for each, something that has never happened ever before.
Moving ahead towards cancelling the controversial chopper deal, the Defence Ministry on Wednesday said it has issued a final show cause notice to AgustaWestland for "violating" the terms of the Rs 3,600 crore contract for supplying 12 VVIP choppers to the Air Force.
Moving ahead towards scrapping the Rs 3,600 crore controversial chopper deal, Defence Minister AK Antony on Wednesday said AgustaWestland has "violated the contract" for supplying 12 VVIP choppers for the air force.
Did one arm of the government not take any action despite knowing Finmeccanica might have violated the integrity pact it had signed with the government of India?
India has encashed a guarantee of over Rs 250 crore deposited by AgustaWestland in a bank in New Delhi even as it is preparing to file an appeal against an Italian court's stay on its move to encash another guarantee deposited in an Italian bank.
The companies that have signed these pacts with the India chapter of the Berlin-based Transparency International include PSU majors such as GAIL (India), Coal India, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Steel, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Steel Authority of India, National Mineral Development Corporation and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam. In fact, 12 of the 14 companies that signed the pact, did so in the last six months.
Faced with the prospect of the nixing of its Rs 3,600 crore deal for the supply of 12 VVIP choppers, AgustaWestland today denied it had violated any contractual obligations in the pact for the same with IAF.
The minister also said that four cases of corruption in defence deals have been registered by the CBI since 2015.
The central probe agency had filed a money laundering case to probe the deal and is carrying out the action to collect evidence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), officials said.
'The government will soon announce new procedures to make it easier and mandatory for all arms agents to register themselves with not only the Defence ministry, but also Reserve Bank.'
The government on Thursday made it mandatory for all major foreign armament companies winnings contracts worth more than Rs 300 crores (Rs 3 billion) to necessarily invest thirty per cent of the amount in the country as direct offsets.
The CBI also carried out searches at the residence and office of controversial arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari in connection with the deal
"How many more lies will be peddled to sustain a sinking dynast? India, certainly deserves better," Jaitley said.
After India scrapped a contract for procuring VVIP choppers from AgustaWestland, American firm Textron on Friday said it is ready to offer its unique V-22 Osprey helicopter to India for ferrying its dignitaries.
The Anglo-Italian firm said that the defence ministry had no right to unilaterally suspend the contract for the 12 VVIP choppers. The firm added that it has since April been requesting the ministry to hold discussions on the issue, but there has been no response from the government
The defence ministry has put on hold all existing and future deals with Rolls Royce pending a CBI probe ordered into allegations of bribery and engaging middlemen in contracts worth Rs 10,000 crore for supply of aircraft engines to state-owned HAL.
An Italian court on Friday allowed Indian authorities to question alleged middleman Guido Hashcke in the chopper scam case, which is being heard in that country.
Facing the prospect of cancellation of its Rs 3,600 crore deal to supply 12 VVIP choppers to the IAF, AgustaWestland has sought a meeting with the defence ministry to explain its stand on the issue.
Italian firm Agusta Westland on Monday withdrew its lawsuit from the Delhi High Court filed against India's decision to encash over Rs 250 crore in bank guarantee following the scrapping of the Rs 3600-crore VVIP helicopter deal over bribery allegations.
The defence ministry has scrapped the Rs 2,700 crore deal for acquiring two minesweeper vehicles from a South Korean firm after it was found that there were violations of tender conditions as agents were in the play.
A comparative analysis of the two companies' rankings on three parameters reveals why ONGC slipped in ranking
The MoD panel had submitted its report in March 2015, weeks before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India would procure 36 jets.
After the Union comptroller and auditor-general saying there'd been a loss of Rs 10.67 lakh crore in allotment of coal blocks, the draft Request For Proposal (RFP) for new allocations has strong clauses for cancellation for breaches on this count.
Armed with fresh details on the alleged kickbacks, India has initiated steps to cancel the Rs 3,600 crore-chopper deal with Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland by issuing a show cause notice to it in this regard.
The defence ministry will review all cases of blacklisted firms as it prepares a new list of such entities following the new policy unveiled by it which is a mixture of heavy fines and graded banning.
With references to politicians and bureaucrats coming up in the chopper scam trial in Italy, the Defence Ministry is expected to seek clarifications on the issue from alleged middleman Guido Haschke during the next hearing of the case there.
Italian prosecutors have "shelved" proceedings against defence major Finmeccannica, the parent firm of AgustaWestland, saying it had nothing to do with the alleged corruption in India's Rs 3,600-crore deal to procure 12 VVIP helicopters, Italian news agency Ansa reported.
A day after terminating the tainted VVIP helicopter deal with AugustaWestland, the defence ministry has set in motion the process of encashing the bank guarantee of nearly Rs 1,700 crore furnished by the Anglo-Italian firm.
Ahead of the assembly elections next year, the BJP has been wallowing in a welter of ideas that has resurrected the debate on populism versus pragmatism, as it has to pander to two important but incompatible constituencies, of the freebie consuming masses and Bengaluru's heavy hitters craving for even roads, pristine lakes and unbroken power supply, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
'This man has aged, but does not know the difference between words spoken on the streets from those of spoken in Parliament.' 'He does not allow his hair to turn gray, so he hasn't learned or matured.' Rashme Sehgal reports on how Subramanian Swamy has riled the Congress yet again.
Nitin Gokhale, national security expert and founder BharatShakti.in, tells us what the controversy is all about.
'The armed forces have been given clear indication that they have to give priority to Make in India and indigenisation and dependence on foreign source should be reduced.' 'Almost Rs 90,000 crores contracts have been signed during my tenure. Another almost Rs 70,000 crores are in the pipeline.'
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