Taking a serious note of a missing file related to procurement of Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers (AJT), the Defence Ministry has ordered a departmental probe and will initiate disciplinary proceedings against officers responsible for the lapse. The file pertained to a deal worth over Rs2,000 crore.
The lapse may delay the procurement of 20 Hawk AJTs for equipping the Surya Kiran Aerobatic Team (SKAT) of the IAF as the process has to be restarted with issue of Request for Proposal(RFP) in the near future, sources said on Tuesday.
Procurements of weapon systems are handled by the Directorate General of Acquisitions headed by an Additional Secretary-rank officer and guilty officers will not be spared, they said. However, said the missing file will not impact the proposed deal as the Government always has a “shadow” or a duplicate file, officials said.
They admitted that the file went missing recently when the acquisition process was at an advanced stage with the tenders already issued. British Aerospace (BAE) manufactures Hawk AJTs and will supply these aircraft under transfer of technology pact with public sector Hindustan Aeronautics limited (HAl). The missing file pertained to details of the proposed agreement and cost of various major and minor parts of the aircraft.
India has, so far, placed orders for 123 Hawks with BAE Systems in two phases. The first order for 66 aircraft was placed by India in 2004, of which more than 40 have already arrived. The second order for 57 aircraft was placed in June last year.The third order for which negotiations were on and the file related to it went missing was for the Surya Kirant aerobatic team. It was earlier flying HJT-16 Kiran trainer planes which were grounded three years back.
This is not the first time that a file related to key procurements has gone missing. Three years ago, a key file related to the multi-billion dollar procurement of 126 multi-role combat aircraft(MMRCA) had also gone missing from the Defence Ministry in New Delhi. It was found later by a passerby from a locality here under mysterious circumstances and handed over to the IAF by a civilian.