New Delhi, February 25: Government on Wednesday said it has allowed the seven firms named by CBI in the Ordnance Factory Board scam to take part in the multi-vendor acquisition process, but no tender will be awarded to them unless they are “totally” cleared by the investigating agency.
After the Ordnance Factory Board scam surfaced in May last year, the Defence Ministry had put on hold all its dealings with seven defence firms, including Singapore Technologies and Israeli Military Industries (IMI) and three Indian companies.
“Later it was decided that multi-vendor procurement cases held up at various stages of trials may be progressed further as per the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) 2008,” Defence Minister A K Antony said in reply to a Rajya Sabha query.
After the Government’s decision, Singapore Technology was allowed to field its artillery gun for field trials for the 155 mm 52 calibre howitzers requirements of the army.
“However, no tender will be awarded to the companies mentioned in the FIR unless CBI investigation clears them totally,” he added.
Antony said, “appropriate action” is taken after corruption allegations are received against defence companies.
Asked if defence major BAE Systems was implicated by the UK and the US and the Government was planning to blacklist it, Antony said: “In major purchases, there is a provision under DPP to obtain a declaration that no previous transgression occurred in the last three years immediately before signing the Integrity Pact with any other country that could justify bidder’s exclusion from tender process.”
-PTI