In an effort to maintain the tempo of operational preparedness, the Defence Ministry has approved the hike in powers of Vice Chiefs in tender process including Proprietary Article Certificate(PAC) and Single Tender Enquiry. This will enhance the ability of the Armed Forces to keep a high degree of serviceability of the in-service equipment and procurement of stores including ammunition.
Notwithstanding this approval by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday, the Standing Committee on Defence in its report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday mentioned delegation of powers to the Vice Chiefs has not shown the desired results on ground.
One such example was the deposition of Vice Chief of Army lt General Sarath Chand before the panel which said while the Vice Chief was empowered to spend Rs14,097 crores to improve the security of army camps following terrorist attacks, there is no separate allocation for this. “So this money also to be found from the same budget leaving with us with no choice but to re-prioritise either to reduce our requirement as far as the security of military stations are concerned or to go slow on some other acquisitions,” the Vice Chief said.
Giving details of the latest decision, Defence Ministry officials said here till now powers for procurement of articles under PAC and STE was restricted to 50 and 5 per cent respectively of normal powers delegated for revenue procurements. Wherever full powers had been delegated in respect PAC and STE, a cap of Rs50 crore and Rs5 crore respectively were made applicable. Revenue budget includes day to day maintenance of weapons including tanks, ships and aircraft, fuel cost, salaries, training and procuring ammunition for operations.
Officials said a number of initiatives were taken by the ministry in the recent past to simplify and streamline the procedures and decentralise the decision-making through delegation of powers. Now, the government has enhanced financial delegation to the Armed Forces in respect of Revenue Procurement as well, they added. In the past financial powers were delegated to the Vice Chiefs for emergency procurement of spares and ammunition in specific areas. These are part of revenue budget.
With this approval, the powers of the Vice Chiefs in respect of PAC cases, hitherto restricted to 50 per cent of competitive bidding cases, has been increased and made equal to the powers delegated in competitive bidding cases. In respect of STE cases, the powers have been enhanced to 50 per cent of the powers of competitive bidding cases from the existing cap of 5 per cent of competitive bidding powers.
However, the Standing Committee in its report noted that even the Defence Secretary admitted before the panel that the finance ministry is not supporting the defence minister as per its requirements. The allocated funds are not adequate for capital procurements and the situation is same for revenue budget which looks after day to day operational costs.