Process of procurement, payment done by Defence Ministry: Shankar Roy Chowdhury
In the wake of revelations of corruption within the Army — the latest being Army Chief V.K. Singh's allegations that he was offered a bribe of Rs. 14 crore by a lobbyist, the former Army Chief, Shankar Roy Chowdhury, said here on Monday that attention should not be restricted to the Army alone. “Other quarters,” including the Ministry of Defence, should also be examined.
“Why focus attention particularly on the Army? The Army has very little scope for corruption as it has a limited role in procurement. The whole process of procurement, where these alleged payments change hands, takes place in the Ministry of Defence,” Gen. Roy Chowdhury, who served as the Army Chief between November 1994 and September 1997, told The Hindu.
“Focus should also be put on the other quarters,” he said adding that the Army merely informed the government about its needs and all the details of signing contracts and making payments were looked after by the bureaucracy.
Asked about Gen. Singh's assertion that the row over his age was “a manufactured controversy,” Gen. Roy Chowdhury said although it was “all speculation,” there were many who still believed it to be so.
“When the present Chief took over the office, he did say he was seriously going to clean up the system. There are many linkages outside the system as well. May be this could be a reaction to that…But this is all speculation,” he said.
Gen. Roy Chowdhury said Gen. Singh could be facing conflict “as he pushes against these outside agencies” in a bid to clean up the system.
Referring to the current controversy, Gen. Roy Chowdhury said a person's refusal to accepting bribe showed that “everyone is not corrupt and the whole system cannot be subverted.”
It is an open secret that there is no other sector which is as corrupt and filled with graft other than the Defense Sector.
Allotments made in the Budget for increasing the resources in our defense makes it's way into the pockets of these traitors.
Reduction of magnanimous budget allocations will not only decrease the amount of black money in the market but also help in the reduction of unnecessary revenue expenditure thus decreasing the Fiscal Deficit.
Corruption is a cancer in India that stretches from the street peddlar
all the way to the figurehead President who uses chartered Boeing 707
aircraft for her unnecessary trips abroad accompanied by a large
entourage of family and friends at state expense wasting 278 crores of
public money. In addition the External Affairs Ministry spends 36
crores on accompanying the President along with associated security
charges. The post of President has been abused in many countries
around the world by persons who are corrupt or are deficient in
conduct. The current President and certain members of her family are
tainted by charges of accumulating and misusing crores of public
money. It is time to abolish the Presidency and time to review the
defense deals with new states to ferret out the kickbacks and the
culprits.
I think its better to take a stand, by supporting what former Army Chief, Shankar Roy Chowdhury, said, as the people in the army are the one who are always ready to sacrifice their life, and if they are involved in corruption of equipments, at some stage its they who have to suffer in the war. So, logically, they will try avoiding corruption. Implies, corruption can find space in the ministry, who have little to do with the war and more with the power, votes etc. Atleast, indirectly, we must respect those by avoiding any allegation of any kind relating to corruption or anything else.
We talk about corruption and laws to prevent it but there's no discourse on the root causes. IMO, humans are not inherently greedy nor corrupt. Greed is being augmented by various beliefs, rules and activities within our society. E.g., we admire the rich who pours kilos of gold in a temple, or spends crores on marriages or rides Mercedes (all a tiny fraction of that person's wealth), yet we look down on a poor person who may have spent 50% of his total savings for his offerings to a temple. We believe in *speed* and competition i.e. let's get things done fast so we can make more money, beat the competition, etc. We need to change our systems from competition to cooperation, to share what's on the planet in an equitable manner, to limit the peak wealth of individuals, etc. Give education and growth opportunities to the poor so our ability to innovate as well as productivity grows (without greed). Greed will automatically come down making Jan Lokpal and the likes redundant.
Over 15-years ago ex-Admiral Bhagwat was hustled out by the government who found him inconvenient. Since then governments have come and gone but no one bothered to review the mechanisms used for any purpose in the armed forces are trim and fit. Generals (and perhaps others of equivalent ranks) obtain their positions by compromise and rarely by competence. But once issues are pointed out a white paper on the subject by an independent and competent authority is necessary to bring matters to rest. The first thing the Defence Minister can do is to release the Henderson-Brooks report on the 1962 debacle.
To Mr. Anil.: Totally agree. if you go through comments you will find most of them don't even read entire article. by the way I'm not the "Aurn" you mentioned
I agree with B S Kumar's comment above. While one problem is that the CAG doesn't have the authority to audit defence procurements, another problem is the lack of quality in public discourse. Any person advocating for excessive spending is automatically portrayed as a patriot, while the person pointing towards corruption is shunned off as a conspiracy theorist. This needs to change.
It sad to see that most people in the forum are unaware of the procurement process in the services. None of the three services can give specific instructions or recommendations on what make / model or type to buy. They give broad specifications based on which certain models are short listed. The finalisation is done at MoD which is a purely civilian organisation and none of the services have any control over it. Finally the services have to lump what they get.
Reading Arun's, comments, one realises that a large number of Indians have no clue as to how procurement is done for the Defence Forces. In a public forum all are free to comment. Those commenting should first understand the whole issue and then only comment. To those not aware of the procurement process and decision making must understand that the Army only gives the broad specifications of equipment required. The ultimate decision after input from DRDO and other stake holder and trials of the equipment, is taken by the Babus in the MOD. This lopsided decision making is a serious problem. The Babus have the authority but not the responsibility for defence of the country.
Army gives little scope for corruption? The minister must be delusional in thinking this. Here are a few very small examples: Siphoning off fuel from officers' cars for putting in their personal vehicles. Selling off government supplied grain and grocery supplies to civilian buyers. Taking money and other favours from junior officers to write good recommendations. Then the medium sized activities: Taking money from import substitute technology suppliers to recommend their equipment to the MOD. Making money through illegal land deals that are shut off from the public eye. Then the big picture: Taking bribes and other favours from foreign suppliers of equipment for making recommendations. Many shady dealers are present on this route, because there is very little public discourse on what the military really needs.
What a funny and weak attempt by Mr. Shankar Roy chowdury. But truth has come out of your own mouth sir. You admit that the system needs cleansing. You admit that there is scope of corruption in army though you claim it to be "very little". Dont divert our attention by such talks of where is more corruption - in MoD or in army. We the common people of India are concerned with corruption at all levels at all places of public administration and in private businesses. We want to annihilate the root cause of the corruption by a total overhauling of the system. You people in power at different places fight among yourself as to who got the higher scope of corruption. You are jealous that you dont have as much scope as that of MoD. The people of this country will soon retaliate against all of you who suck their blood.
What makes Army susceptible to corruption? The Army is also from this same society which produces corrupt politicians, businessmen, professionals, bureaucrats, police and the like. In fact lack of transparency makes it all the more difficult to detect corruption in Army. Little scope for corruption? It is the Army who decides what to purchase and what not to purchase on whatever considerations they have. They can ask for capacity A vehicle or capacity Y vehicle. They can ask for X make or Y make. So the choice and demand is made by Army and kickbacks can perfectly influence these decisions. Indeed that is the whole point about Gen Singh's allegations. The worrying aspect perhaps is, how verifiable and truthful his revelations are and what are his intentions in disclosing it to the media after 2 years.
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