AugustaWestland yet to return 106 Million Euros worth downpayment for 3 helicopters

The political tiff in parliament over the mammoth Rs. 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP has spiralled, with details surfacing on the entire down payment made by India towards the chopper deal that has not been remitted despite the government soliciting the integrity clause in the deal after the role of middlemen came to limelight.

Allegedly, AgustaWestland has not remitted about 106 million Euros for three choppers.

These three choppers were dispatched to India and accepted by the Air Force in November 2012. This dates nine months after the first detention was made in Italy vis-a-vis palm-greasing in AgustaWestland.

While the Indian government entered arbitrament proceedings with AgustaWestland to recover funds which had already been paid, these choppers had already flown 556 hours with the Indian Air Force which was undertaking the induction of them into service.

The recent intricacies advocated the findings of the Comptroller and Auditor (CAG) which had fingered procedural derelictions in the acquisition of the choppers.

According to CAG’s exposition that was proposed in Parliament in August 2013, “The benchmarked cost worked out by the Contract Negotiation Committee was Rs. 4877.5 crore as against the estimated cost of Rs. 793 crore approved by the Ministry in January 2006.

This was more than six times the estimated cost. Further, the offered cost of the vendor was Rs. 3,966 crore. This was much below the benchmarked cost of Rs. 4877.5 crore. Thus, the benchmarked cost was higher by 22.80 per cent. The most devastating point of the exposition is pertinent to how the Government of India was actually willing to pay AgustaWestland more than the company had demanded for the sale of the helicopters.

The sealing of deal traces back to Mr Manmohan Singh’s Congress-led government in 2010. The deal was nixed when  Italy cited confidence in executives that they had paid kickbacks worth nearly 30 million euros.

By Isha Kulkarni wih inputs from NDTV

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