Procurement of expensive plane parts after senior official's nod: Air India

New aircraft parts worth more than Rs 10 lakhs and non-aircraft parts worth more than Rs 5 lakh will now be procured only after the approval of the either Director Finance or Executive Director Finance, Air India said on Sunday.

Moreover, the airline in an order stated that if the repair of aircraft parts is going to cost more than Rs 10 lakh, it has to be first approved by the Executive Director Engineering.

This order was issued by Air India's Director, Finance, Vinod Hejmadi after Civil Aviation Secretary Rajiv Bansal stated that the airline's disinvestment exercise is likely to complete within the next 10 weeks and only necessary revenue and capital expenses should be carried out till then.

Bansal also holds the charge of Chairman and Managing Director of Air India.

The airline's order stated that "procurement of new aircraft parts" and "procurement of non-aircraft parts" -- which are of more than Rs 10 lakh cost -- must be done after the approval of "Director Finance or Executive Director Finance".

"All other contracts valuing under Rs 10 lakhs would be issued with the approval of regional MM (Materials Management) Head," the order which has been accessed by PTI stated.

On October 8, the Centre announced that Talace Private Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, has beaten a consortium led by SpiceJet promoter Ajay Singh by offering Rs 18,000 crore to win the bid to acquire debt-laden Air India.

The airline's order also said that the "repair of aircraft components", if it costs more than Rs 10 lakh, must be approved by the Executive Director Engineering.

"All other contracts valuing under Rs 5 lakh would be issued with the approval of regional engineering head," it added.

The order mentioned that any procurement order or service order issued by any other department, if it is costs between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 5 lakh, has to be approved by the regional finance head.

"No long-term contract would be entered into by any department of air India," it stated.

No capital expenditure exercises would be carried out in Air India without the approval of Director Finance or Executive Director Finance, it noted.

"In case of contractual requirements, the contracts would only be entered into for their tenure and validity up to March 2022 only after considering the quantity in stock," it mentioned.

For those contracts which are due to expire shortly, the same may be extended further up to March 2022 at the same rates, terms and conditions, it stated.