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| VVIP chopper scandal: Govt issues |
| VVIP chopper scandal: Govt issues showcause notice to AugustaWestland
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| INDIA
, 15-February-2013
7:30:13 AM |
| In what is seen as a step towards scrapping the Rs. 4000-crore VVIP helicopter deal, the government has issued a showcause notice to UK firm AgustaWestland on the allegation that it bribed Indian officials to land the contract. AgustaWestland has seven days to respond to the notice.
The contract includes a strong integrity penalty clause that Defence Minister AK Antony has said India will invoke if it gets evidence of kickbacks being paid in the deal. It allows India to get back the money paid so far to the British company and, Mr Antony said, blacklist the company.
The Defence Ministry had earlier written to AgustaWestland, asking it to explain if it had paid bribes. That was followed up with the showcause notice today after India received an authenticated copy of Italian court documents that allege that AgustaWestland bribed Indian public officials to ensure revisions in the tender, without which AgustaWestland would not have made the cut.
The notice is seen as being a step short of cancelling the contract.
The CBI is already investigating the deal after the arrest this week of the CEO of Italian defence giant Finmeccanica, the parent company of AgustaWestland, in Italy after a two-year investigation.
Italian prosecutors say that former Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi was paid to ensure that technical specifications were changed to suit AgustaWestland. They say his cousins were paid 12 million euros or Rs. 86 crore, and that a middleman for AgustaWestland met with SP Tyagi six times, allegedly to discuss the contract. Air Chief Marshall (retired) Tyagi has denied the charges.
Yesterday, the government also issued a statement to highlight that the changes to the tender were requested by its predecessor, the BJP-led NDA coalition. The revisions to the tender were requested and finalised in 2003, when the BJP-led NDA coalition was in power with Atal Behari Vajpayee as prime minister. But it was in 2006 that the new requirements were notified.
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