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While India has blacklisted several international firms that have been involved in paying bribes and commissions to Indian Defence officials for securing defence contracts, it seems very little action is taken to penalize certain firms or take strong action against them.
An Indian Defence Ministry official said that at least two U.S firms, who have admitted to the U.S Department of Justice that they paid bribes to Indian officials, Navy officers and other middlemen for securing contracts in India, have not been blacklisted by India. These US firms are Textron and York International Corporation.
There are instances where India has blacklisted global defence firms even before they were found guilty through a legal process. The Indian Defence Minister A.K Antony had ordered blacklisting of seven firms in 2008, including Singapore Technologies and Israel Military Industries, after the CBI found prima facie evidence against them. While the CBI was in the process of filing its charge-sheet, the MOD had already banned them. The blacklisted firm Israeli Military Industries which had recently inked a Rs 1200-crore deal with the state-owned Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) to set up five plants in Nalanda to produce 155 mm bi-modular charge systems and other propellant charges for heavy artillery, including Bofors. The South African firm Denel was also blacklisted few years back.
Considering the hard stand India has taken when it comes to corruption in defence dealings, it is shocking how the two U.S firms are not being reprimanded for their action. According to investigations by the U.S department of justice under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the two U.S firms admitted to paying bribes in India. York India, which works with the navy on air-conditioning of ships, appointed, against rules, an agent who made payments to Indian Navy officials. As for the other firm in question, it is a subsidiary of Textron, a global giant that owns among other things the Bell helicopters and Cessna aircraft. This firm has also admitted to paying bribes to secure military contracts in India. According to the department of justice, $51,870 was paid to a “non-government customer” in India for securing business.
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