New Delhi: The Air Force was on Friday chided by CAG for an "avoidable expenditure" of Rs 227 crore modernisation programme of its 105 Soviet-origin An-32 transport aircraft and the grounding of over 50 per cent of the fleet due to delay in creating upgrade facilities.
In its report tabled in Lok Sabha, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said IAF procured 17 engines in 2007 and 100 engines in 2009 for the Antonv-32 transport fleet.
"IAF had paid USD 719,500 (Rs 3.16 crore) per engine against the contract of June 2007, whereas, it had to pay USD 10,90,000 (Rs 5.43 crore) per engine against the contract of December 2009. Thus, IAF had to incur a total of Rs 227 crore extra on procurement of 100 aero-engines," it said.
The government auditor said, "Despite being aware of long-term requirement of aero-engines, IAF failed to project the entire requirement which resulted in the extra avoidable expenditure."
An-32 is a medium tactical transport aircraft used primarily by the Air Force for transportation of the troops and cargo, para-trooping and casualty evacuation. India had signed a contract with Ukraine for upgrading the fleet of 105 aircraft of which 40 were to be developed in Ukraine and the remaining were to be modernised in IAF facilities in Kanpur.
"Due to delay in initiation and conclusion of the contract, facilities for upgradation of an aircraft could not be set up in time despite an investment of Rs 272 crore on Transfer of Technology resulting in grounding of more than 50 per cent of the transport aircraft fleet," he said.
CAG also rapped the Navy for failure to synchronise the procurement of spares with the refit of a submarine coupled with delay on the decision to procure 204 types of spares in 2006, which affected the quality and completeness of the refit of the submarine.
"Besides, procurement of 89 spares at a later date led to an extra expenditure of Rs 18 crore," it said. The refit of the submarines of the Navy had come under the scanner recently after the sinking of the INS Sindhurakshak submarine in Mumbai harbour on August 14, last year, resulting in the death of all 18 sailors on board. The report stated that the scrutiny of 24 projects aimed at achieving indigenisation, undertaken by the Navy-affiliated DRDO laboratories at a cost of Rs 731.51 crore, revealed that 21 projects that is 87 per cent did not adhere to the original time frame for completion.
"Seven projects witnessed cost overruns ranging from 34 to 348 per cent. Scrutiny of 12 projects related to critical naval technologies, showed delays, technological obsolescence, difference of perceptions between Navy and DRDO on success criteria," it said.
The government auditor said the "frequent changes in qualitative requirements by Navy contributing to failure in induction of indigenously developed capability". CAG also criticised DRDO for "irregular allotment of office space to a private organisation leading to a revenue loss of Rs 5.67 crore to the government exchequer".
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