Firms may be penalised for discrepancies in defence supplies

The Air Force is strongly considering a procedure where firms may be penalised for qualitative and quantitative discrepancy in supplies of goods and services.
Addressing an event here today, Air Vice Marshal M Baladitya said there is a need to further improve upon arbitration and dispute resolution consultancy mechanism being followed by the force.
"We are very strongly considering a green-channel procedure for dealing with established vendors and are considering very seriously with the government for doing away with any kind of inspection in between, it will only be self-certification and there would be a penalty clause in case there is a qualitative or quantitative discrepancy in the supplies," he said.

This will be a major step in ensuring ease of doing business and speeding up the procurement process, Baladitya said.
Stressing upon the need to increase the confidence level in the field, he said that it will not only help in getting better value for money but the kind of infrastructure India has in various fields can help in getting much better products and achieve government's dream of Make in India in a big way.
The officer was speaking during '10th public procurement summit on enhancing transparency, efficiency and accountability', organised by industry body Assocham.

Baladitya said that blacklisting of firm is a "very very extreme step". "Rather than you take the step of blacklisting, we need to come out with a better way to stop dealing with that firm in a more organised manner," he said.

Baladitya said that the Air Force for the first time has decided to conduct "reverse auction" for procurement of goods and services through tendering to help country save money.
In this kind of auction, the role of a buyer and seller is reversed with the primary objective to compete purchase prices downwards. Several bidders participate in it to offer competitive price.
The Air Force does procurement worth about Rs 2,000 crore approximately in an year, he said, adding that the amount keep fluctuating.
Baladitya said that Air Force has moved towards e-procurement mode from late last year for select categories of goods and services that has no relation with the country's security.

He said so far this year 27 tenders have been floated through online mode and there has been saving of 20 per cent administrative week time.
"We have migrated to e-tendering for foreign procurements from July 1," the officer said.
Baladitya said there is a need to have consultancy services for three things--legal, arbitration and dispute resolution mechanism.