India 'blacklists' seven defence firms on corruption charges

New Delhi, June 5 (PTI) Cracking down on corruption in
defence deals, India has blacklisted seven companies,
including those from Israel, Poland and Singapore, and "put on
hold" all acquisition from them.

On the orders of Defence Minister A K Antony, who had
last week strongly reiterated the government's zero-tolerance
stand on corruption, the Defence Ministry issued orders
yesterday banning the seven companies, which were named by the
country's premier investigating agency Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI) in the First Information Report (FIR)
against former Ordnance Factories Board Director General
Sudipto Gosh.

The backlisted companies include Israeli Military
Industries, Singapore Technologies, Singapore-based Media
Architects and Poland's BVT.
"The Defence Minister has directed that all acquisition
cases in the pipeline in respect of the seven companies
figuring in the FIR registered by CBI in Kolkata against OFB
former DG Sudipto Gosh be put on hold till further orders," a
Defence Ministry spokesperson said here.

The other companies in blacklist are HYT Engineering,
Delhi-based T S Kishan and Company, and R K Machine Tools.

The blacklisting of the seven companies comes four years
after the South African arms firm, Denel, was banned by India
in 2005 for allegedly paying off Rs 20 crore in a rifle
contract.

The Defence Ministry's action would mean that India would
not operationalise any project that these companies are
involved or accept supplies from them,Ministry officials said.

While, Israeli Military Industries is the contractor for
the OFB's five ammunition factories for the Bofors 155-mm
artillery guns that are to come up in Nalanda in Bihar,
Singapore Technologies is the strongest contender in tenders
for 155-mm towed artillery guns for the Army.

Media Architects is said to be supplying video-editing
software to the armed forces, while BVT Poland is said to be
engaged in marine engineering and naval architecture.

T S Kishan and Company is said to be suppliers of spares
and accessories for Army's T-72 and T-90 tanks, and infantry
combat vehicle BMP-II, while Pune-based HYT Engineering
supplied components of missiles produced within the country.
Ludhiana-based R K Machine Tools supplied spares for
vehicles and machinery produced by Bharat Earth Movers Ltd.

However, the Defence Ministry has sought a detailed list
of equipment and material that these blacklisted companies
provided to the armed forces and the list was still awaited,
officials said.

The CBI had filed the FIR against Gosh on May 17 this
year on corruption charges. Although no charge sheet had yet
been filed in the case, there were concrete evidence such as
transfer of money to personal accounts that were detected, the
Defence Ministry spokesperson said.

"The government views both receiving and giving bribes as
an offence and as such there cannot be any lenient view on
this account.

"The matter will be further reviewed as and when the CBI
provides more evidence. The Defence Ministry desires to tackle
issues of corruption in procurement cases head-on," the
spokesperson added. PTI NCB
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