Saturday, April 9 2005 12:22 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The fresh Government affidavit to be filed before the Supreme Court (SC) on the Kargil Defence purchases is likely to elaborate the "misconduct" on the part of officials responsible for the deals during and after the conflict, highly placed sources said.

Government is contemplating "strict action" against those "responsible" in the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government if it is found that the Kargil purchases were exploited with the motive of personal benefit in violation of rules and regulations, they said.

The exercise was being carried out in the wake of Attorney General Milon K Banerji writing a letter earlier this week to Defence Secretary Ajai Vikram Singh that additional affidavit should focus on the persons responsible on the basis of the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), the sources said.

The Attorney General had even conveyed to the Defence Ministry that he could place his own interpretation on the facts for the benefit of the case.

However, they said the Defence Ministry submitted an affidavit before the court, which was not in conformity with the draft sent by the Attorney General.

The sources said Government was now considering whether the facts reveal a "prima facie case of commission of criminal offence under law as heavy financial losses in excess of Rs 2,000 (as per CAG report) were caused in addition to the fact that the equipment did not materialise at the time of its need".

The Centre had on March 14 filed the counter-affidavit, which the amicus curiae in the matter Rakesh Dwivedi had termed as "evasive".

Attorney General had said an additional affidavit would be filed after scrutinising the CAG report, which had allegedly pointed to "large-scale irregularities" in five transactions.

The transitions related to hand held thermal imagers, terminally guided munitions (Krasnopol) (TGMs), ammunition for T-72 tanks, ammunition and ammunition caskets.

The sources said the issue was that the purchases continued under the modified procurement even after the Kargil operations had ended.

The Defence Ministry had on February 10, 2000 had requested the CAG to conduct audit of the contracts entered into during the period of Operation Vijay and thereafter.

The report of CAG on 'Review of Procurement of OP Vijay (Army)' was tabled in Parliament on December 11, 2001.

The affidavit which is said to have been an embarrassment for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government had said there was no violation of any financial rules of the Government or the Defence Procurement Procedures.

It had said the modified procedures issued on June 21, 1999 were not to substitute or supercede the prescribed procedures for normal procurement action.

The modified procedures were meant only to "telescope" the timeframe, particularly for imports, that has become critical keeping in view the intensity of "Operation Vijay" and unpredictability of the situation on the period for which the operation would last, the affidavit had said.

In the affidavit, the Government had said the measures taken to abridge the time frame related to simplification of terms of contract and simplification of procedure.

In the simplification procedure, provisions were made to make Price Negotiation Committee (PNC) reports more comprehensive, approval for the release of foreign exchange together with expenditure, clearance and a closer monitoring of contract signed, the Centre had said.

"These in no way violated any of the financial rules of he Government or the Defence Procurement Procedures, 1992."