Israeli military firm banned in India for Corruption

[EjazR]

Defence ministry action will bring in line other defence firms

Antony freeze on Israel firm
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi, June 5: Defence minister A.K. Antony today froze all business with a major Israeli military firm and six other companies alleged to have bribed the former Ordnance Factories’ chief, Sudipta Ghosh, who was arrested in Calcutta last month.

Among the six other companies are Singapore Technologies, which is competing for a huge Indian Army artillery modernisation programme worth a billion dollars, and could now be out of the race leaving the field open to the only other vendor, Bae Land Systems, which is the owner of the former Bofors company.

The five other companies are: BVT of Poland, Media Architects Pte Ltd of Singapore, T.S. Kishan and Company Pvt Ltd, R.K. Machine Tools, and HYT Engineering — the last three being Indian firms.

“The minister has decided to take a tough stand against corruption and send out a signal. All acquisition cases in the pipeline of these seven companies that figure in the CBI first information report against the former director-general of the Ordnance Factory Board have been put on hold forthwith,” said the defence ministry spokesperson, Sitanshu Kar.

The action against the companies has been taken despite the CBI not yet having filed a chargesheet because the ministry was convinced by the evidence that there were transfers of large sums in the personal account of Ghosh.

A defence ministry source said information had been received that Ghosh held an account in Singapore to which funds were transferred from these companies.

Israel Military Industries (IMI) 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 bimodular propellant charges — ammunition for the Indian 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. IMI is also contracted by the ordnance board to export the ammunition.

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.

The defence ministry has sought details from the ordnance board on all projects in which the seven companies are involved to assess the impact the blacklisting could have.

In the past, Denel of South Africa was blacklisted after allegations that it paid bribes to win a contract from Indian forces to supply anti-materiel guns. Bofors and HDW of Germany were also blacklisted.

Blacklisting can often prove to be counter-productive for the armed forces as it can slow down their modernisation.

 

[Cockpuncher]

thats my boy... antony. we r from the same place u know.

 

[SQ8]

Too bad there has never been such strict checking of Pakistani procurement by honest government officals. Apart from the mirage deal, a lot of corruption and kickbacks go noticed while ordinary officers end up millionaires.

 

[Cockpuncher]

Too bad there has never been such strict checking of Pakistani procurement by honest government officals. Apart from the mirage deal, a lot of corruption and kickbacks go noticed while ordinary officers end up millionaires.

can u give us an eg. if it happened b4?

 

[Rajkumar]

i think under this government we are going to witness shocking changes in defense sector.

 

[beckham]

thats my boy... antony. we r from the same place u know.

Me too... ! Where in kerala... Trivandrum ?

 

[Patriot]

Too bad there has never been such strict checking of Pakistani procurement by honest government officals. Apart from the mirage deal, a lot of corruption and kickbacks go noticed while ordinary officers end up millionaires.

Buddy..not only officers but also government officials but this is quite common in All Military..read Nosy Haider book where he explains that no honest Army Officer or honest GOP official can survive in procurement department.

 

[beckham]

So the singapore company is out, by the way which artillery system is offered to India by BAe land systems ?
Is it NLOS cannon

 

[beckham]

Or the M109 howitzer

 

[KSRaj]

If Antony starts banning every company that has/had offered bribe, then there wont be any companies left during future tenders!

 

[KSRaj]

Buddy..not only officers but also government officials but this is quite common in All Military..read Nosy Haider book where he explains that no honest Army Officer or honest GOP official can survive in procurement department.

Why just blame one department? I think its a phenomenon across all departments ... and maybe all goverment departments in South Asia!

 

[Cockpuncher]

Me too... ! Where in kerala... Trivandrum ?

yep . TVDM

How's Mohanlal? Met him on a plane once!

 

[holysaturn]

the m-777 will be on offer(as the tender is for air portable artillery and not self propelled).the pegusus from ST was competing and noe it is out.IMI has also lost the oppurtunity to win the indian army open calibre carbine tender with ST.

 

[EjazR]

If Antony starts banning every company that has/had offered bribe, then there wont be any companies left during future tenders!

This is a strategic move by Antony. Other firms like IAI (Israeli firm with biggest contract at present) is also being investigated by CBI but hasn't been added to the list because of obvious implications. But this step will make sure that they don't repeat these things in future processes.

Also, doing this act within weeks of taking the ministry shows that he is serious about corruption, something our armed forces desperately need.

 

[Screaming Skull]

Antony says no one found guilty in ordnance scam will be spared​

8 Jun 2009,

NEW DELHI: Defence minister A K Antony has blasted "misplaced attempts'' to link an earlier clean chit given to former Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) chairman Sudipto Ghosh in "a minor penalty case'' with the major corruption scandal now erupting with the retired official bang in the middle of it.

"I take strong action if any wrongdoing is detected...no one found guilty will be spared,'' Antony told TOI on Sunday. He then pointed to his directive to blacklist seven companies -- including biggies like Israeli Military Industries (IMI) and Singapore Technologies -- named in the ongoing CBI case against Ghosh.

Brandishing `its tough stand against corruption' even though CBI is yet to file a chargesheet, defence ministry (MoD) on Thursday froze all procurements and projects underway with the seven firms till CBI finishes its probe into the alleged huge commissions received by the now-arrested Ghosh for favouring them with OFB contracts.

The contracts put on hold include the one inked between IMI and OFB this March, worth around Rs 1,200 crore, to set up an ordnance complex at Nalanda to manufacture propellant charges for artillery ammunition meant for Bofors howitzers.

But what about the MoD clean chit given to Ghosh in December 2006? The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), after all, had recommended "a suitable minor penalty'' on Ghosh for alleged irregularities in procurement of ammunition boxes while posted as AGM of Khamaria ordnance factory in 1998?

"It was a minor penalty case. The then joint secretary concerned (Alok Perti) and defence production secretary (K P Singh) strongly recommended (on file) that we should take it up with CVC for reconsideration,'' said Antony.

Consequently, in early-December 2006, barely six weeks after he had taken over as the defence minister from Pranab Mukherjee, Antony approved the defence production department's second reference to CVC to reconsider and drop the charges against Ghosh.

"CVC was also convinced with the second reference...it agreed with the department's recommendation (to exonerate Ghosh),'' said Antony. With both CVC and defence production department advising closure of the case, Antony as the "competent authority'' then approved the step.

Ghosh, who by then had become member (materials) of OFB, went on to become OFB chairman and director-general of ordnance factories in May 2007. And now, just after he retired on April 30, he fell into the CBI trap on May 18.

CBI says Ghosh entered into "a criminal conspiracy'', with other accused to demand and obtain "huge illegal gratification'' for OFB supply orders to private manufacturers and for transfers and postings.

While the foreign firms named are IMI, Singapore Technologies, Media Architects (Singapore) and BVT Poland, the Indian ones are HYT Engineering, R K Machine Tools and T S Kishan and Company Pvt Ltd.

Apart from Ghosh, the other accused include Ramesh Nambiar, an additional general manager of Air India, M S Sawhney, a Vasant Vihar-based defence dealer, and three middlemen, Ashish Bose, Pradeep Rana and Kanhai Lal Das.

The BJP, of course, has already pointed fingers at how the latest defence scam even touches the PMO since Nambiar, who helped Ghosh open a bank account in Singapore, was "close'' to a "very senior civil servant'' in PMO.


Antony says no one found guilty in ordnance scam will be spared - India - The Times of India