SR 71 Blackbird
BANNED
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2011
- Messages
- 793
- Reaction score
- 0
Can The M-MRCA Be Completely Clean? No.
If the MMRCA competition was indeed the impulse, Defence Minister AK Antony's warning to the Indian Air Force yesterday, asking them to stay alert against "corrupt practices of vested interests in the garb of aggressive marketing", should have ideally been pointed to the Defence Ministry seeing that the IAF has no work left in the selection process. So if there's been any "corrupt practices" (obviously there's been a lot of aggressive marketing) as far as the IAF is concerned, it's done with. Finito.
Considering that that the six companies in the fray for the Indian fighter deal have all signed integrity pacts with the MoD, I thought it might be useful to list, only for the record, each firm's recent brush with skulduggery. Some of these cases had consequences, some of them remain unresolved, some linger as allegations. But they all point, almost unanimously, to the possibility (not certainty) that each one of the competing firms in the Indian M-MRCA competition, indulged in "corrupt practices in the garb of aggressive marketing" at some point or the other. Maybe in the M-MRCA, maybe not. Ok, let's begin, in alphabetical order, and let's remember that this is by no means an exhaustive list, nor does it indicate complicity/guilt in each case:
BOEING DEFENSE: 1. The infamous Darleen Druyun episode, in which the Pentagon bureaucrat helped Boeing during tanker lease negotiations, while getting the company to pony up a post-retirement job opportunity for her and her family. Boeing made her a veep. Both she and Boeing's then CFO Mike Sears served time in prison. 2. In 2002, Boeing was accused of paying Choi Kyu-sun, a former aide to South Korea's President Kim $12-million to ensure that the country ordered F-15s, which Seoul ultimately did.
DASSAULT AVIATION: In 2002, as part of the same deal mentioned above, Dassault stood accused of paying a South Korean air force colonel approximately $10,000 for information on the country's F-X fighter competition. The colonel was court martialled, and Dassault hightailed it from South Korea vowing never to do business with the country again.
EUROFIGHTER: 1. Allegations of corruption in a deal with Austria. 2. Allegations of slush fund bribery against BAE Systems in the sale of Eurofighters to Saudi Arabia as part of the Al-Salam deal. Compounded by the fact that the UK Serious Frauds Office (SFO) decided to call off investigations in the "wider public interest", so the truth may never be known.
LOCKHEED-MARTIN: 1. In 2009, Lockheed's India head reportedly bolted from the country after being found in possession of MMRCA documents that he shouldn't have had access to. Lockheed refuted all the allegations, though the issue wasn't followed up by the Indian MoD. There's a book (I''ve just ordered it) about Lockheed-Martin's practices.
SAAB: Saab has faced bribery/corruption charges in connection with the sale of Gripen fighter jets to South Africa, Hungary (through BAE Systems) and Czech Republic.
UAC / RAC-MiG: 1. Was embroiled in a bribery scandal in the supply of MiG-27 jets to the Sri Lankan Air Force in 2007. 2. Bribery scandal in the supply of eight MiG-29 jets to the Bangladesh Air Force in 1999.
This list is only illustrative. Enough has happened in the M-MRCA competition so far to suggest that it hasn't been completely kosher.
Livefist: Can The M-MRCA Be Completely Clean? No.
If the MMRCA competition was indeed the impulse, Defence Minister AK Antony's warning to the Indian Air Force yesterday, asking them to stay alert against "corrupt practices of vested interests in the garb of aggressive marketing", should have ideally been pointed to the Defence Ministry seeing that the IAF has no work left in the selection process. So if there's been any "corrupt practices" (obviously there's been a lot of aggressive marketing) as far as the IAF is concerned, it's done with. Finito.
Considering that that the six companies in the fray for the Indian fighter deal have all signed integrity pacts with the MoD, I thought it might be useful to list, only for the record, each firm's recent brush with skulduggery. Some of these cases had consequences, some of them remain unresolved, some linger as allegations. But they all point, almost unanimously, to the possibility (not certainty) that each one of the competing firms in the Indian M-MRCA competition, indulged in "corrupt practices in the garb of aggressive marketing" at some point or the other. Maybe in the M-MRCA, maybe not. Ok, let's begin, in alphabetical order, and let's remember that this is by no means an exhaustive list, nor does it indicate complicity/guilt in each case:
BOEING DEFENSE: 1. The infamous Darleen Druyun episode, in which the Pentagon bureaucrat helped Boeing during tanker lease negotiations, while getting the company to pony up a post-retirement job opportunity for her and her family. Boeing made her a veep. Both she and Boeing's then CFO Mike Sears served time in prison. 2. In 2002, Boeing was accused of paying Choi Kyu-sun, a former aide to South Korea's President Kim $12-million to ensure that the country ordered F-15s, which Seoul ultimately did.
DASSAULT AVIATION: In 2002, as part of the same deal mentioned above, Dassault stood accused of paying a South Korean air force colonel approximately $10,000 for information on the country's F-X fighter competition. The colonel was court martialled, and Dassault hightailed it from South Korea vowing never to do business with the country again.
EUROFIGHTER: 1. Allegations of corruption in a deal with Austria. 2. Allegations of slush fund bribery against BAE Systems in the sale of Eurofighters to Saudi Arabia as part of the Al-Salam deal. Compounded by the fact that the UK Serious Frauds Office (SFO) decided to call off investigations in the "wider public interest", so the truth may never be known.
LOCKHEED-MARTIN: 1. In 2009, Lockheed's India head reportedly bolted from the country after being found in possession of MMRCA documents that he shouldn't have had access to. Lockheed refuted all the allegations, though the issue wasn't followed up by the Indian MoD. There's a book (I''ve just ordered it) about Lockheed-Martin's practices.
SAAB: Saab has faced bribery/corruption charges in connection with the sale of Gripen fighter jets to South Africa, Hungary (through BAE Systems) and Czech Republic.
UAC / RAC-MiG: 1. Was embroiled in a bribery scandal in the supply of MiG-27 jets to the Sri Lankan Air Force in 2007. 2. Bribery scandal in the supply of eight MiG-29 jets to the Bangladesh Air Force in 1999.
This list is only illustrative. Enough has happened in the M-MRCA competition so far to suggest that it hasn't been completely kosher.
Livefist: Can The M-MRCA Be Completely Clean? No.
