Antony vows strong action of irregularities detected

Conceding that military procurement process "may not be 100 per cent clean", Defence Minister A K Antony today said strong action will be taken wherever irregularities are detected even if it means delays in acquisitions.
Antony also made it clear that the multi-billion dollar deal for 126 multirole combat aircraft, the biggest single contract, will not materialse this year due to financial crunch and hoped it would be finalised in the next fiscal.
The acquisition process "may not be 100 per cent clean but over the last 7-8 years, to a large extent, it has become transparent. Vendors have come to know that there will be no political decision in defence procurement," he said while talking to reporters after inaugurating Defence Expo here.

Antony, who recently scrapped the scam-tainted VVIP helicopter deal with Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland, said sometimes the cancellation of tenders leads to setbacks and delays.
But "we have to take strong actions to end corruption and malpractices in the defence procurement process... This helps us to streamline the system," the Minister said.
Antony said if "there are malpractices and corruption, you have to cancel, you have to punish and if the charges are proved, you have to blacklist. That is our law and we will continue to do that," Antony said.
The Minister was asked if the blacklisting of firms has delayed the modernisation of armed forces and whether there could have been any other way of handling the chopper deal than cancelling it.