Weapons procurement: 60% from single vendor, says CAG

NEW DELHI: In a strong censure of the country’s weapons procurement procedure, the CAG on Monday said the process of technical and trial evaluation lacked “objectivty and fair play” and 60% of purchases were made from a single vendor.

There are deficiencies too in formulation of General Staff Qualitative requirements and acute lack of co-ordination in procurment of weapons common to the three services — army, navy and IAF, the CAG said in its latest report tabled in Parliament.

Coming out for the first time with a ‘Performance Audit’ of Defence capital acquisitions, the CAG said: “The process of technical and trial evaluation of weapons system did not demonstrate objectivity and fair play.” The report said that in “60% of cases of army purchases, only a single vendor was pre-qualified”.

The accounting watchdog body’s observation about the new Defence Procurement comes as India, according to official figures tabled in Parliament, spent a staggering Rs 44,009 crore on arms imports in the last three years.