Taking a firm stance against tainted defence firms, the Ministry of Defence has decided to suspend all dealings with the seven companies that are being investigated in the corruption case against former Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) chairman Sudipta Ghosh till their names are cleared by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

After seeking advice from the Law Ministry and the Central Vigilance Commission, the MoD recently issued instructions that all ongoing projects or deals with the companies would be put on hold and no fresh tender would be awarded to any of the firms.

However, the ministry is yet to take a call on whether trials would be carried out in the tender for light mountain howitzers for the Army in which Singapore Technologies (ST) is the only contender. The ST gun is already in the country but trials were put off after the company’s name surfaced in the Sudipta Ghosh case.

While the instructions by MoD explicitly say no deal can be signed with any of the tainted firms till the CBI inquiry is over, the Army has been insisting that at least trials for the light mountain howitzer and towed 155 mm guns, where again ST is one of the two contenders, should be carried out.

“No tender should be awarded to the companies mentioned in the FIR unless the CBI investigation clears them totally,” the instructions say.

Sources say the MoD has again written to the CVC and Law Ministry, referring to the specific case of ST and has asked for guidelines on whether or not to proceed with field trials of the guns. This, because the Law Ministry advice on dealing with ongoing tenders is slightly vague and is open to interpretation.

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