Monday, December 12 2005 17:38 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: In its first scrutiny of Government's new weapons procurement policy, a Parliamentary committee has cautioned authorities against rising instances of single vendor purchasing and recommended that time-frame of 2-3 years for arms purchases be cut down further.

In another major recommendation, the committee has demanded that the recently promulgated integrity pact for weapons suppliers of deals worth over Rs 300 crore should be made applicable for deals of more than Rs 100 crore.

Voicing concern over a large number of instances of single vendor situation in arms purchases, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence said this should, henceforth, be applicable in only 'exceptional circumstances' and that too for exclusive weapons systems.

"In these circumstances also, the single vendor should be approved only after the Defence Acquisition Council is satisfied by the justification that these systems are required for operational exigencies," the report said.

Articulating that long time-frame for arms purchases was often leading to weapons systems becoming already technology obsolete on procurement, the committee felt that a time-frame should be drawn up before requests for proposals were sent out.

It also called for reduction of time taken in trials of equipment in different situation like winter conditions, desert trials, flexibility in monsoon and jungle conditions.

The committee suggested that a high-powered joint committee be formed of the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Finance to vet defence deals.