Of Matters Military. Mrinal Suman

Of Matters Military

expertise nor are given any special training to handle defence procurements. They even lack necessary education to comprehend competing technologies and technicalities of complex procurement procedures.

Service Officers

All procurement proposals emanate from the service headquarters. Preparation of Services Qualitative Requirements (SQR), technical evaluations, field trials and identification of acceptable equipment are carried out by the services staff. Despite their criticality, the services have not considered it essential to assign these functions to suitably selected and equipped officers. The services have laid down minimum criteria for a host of lesser posts but none for acquisition duties. Almost all acquisition functions are performed by officers on routine or last-leg postings. For example, in the case of the Army, Weapons and Equipment Directorate is the nodal agency for all new procurements, yet its head is always an officer on the verge of retirement. It only shows the lack of importance assigned to such a central appointment.

SQR form the basis of all procurement proposals. Formulation of SQR entails thorough knowledge of own mission requirements, products available in the world market, competing stabilized technologies and cost-performance matrix. Poorly conceived and imprecisely drafted SQR create confusion, lend themselves to misinterpretations, compromise quality of equipment, prove expensive and cause immense delays. Unfortunately, the services have totally ignored this crucial aspect.

Technical evaluation including field trials is another vital activity as it validates performance claims made by the producers and ascertains suitability of equipment for induction into service. Although trial of new equipment with differing technologies is a highly specialised task, trial units are nominated purely on the basis of their geographical location rather than for any displayed competence of the commanders. It has been seen that most trial units are incapable of conducting purposeful trials.

Civil Bureaucrats

Once technical evaluation is completed and the staff evaluation report is accepted by the Defence Ministry, a Commercial Negotiation Committee (CNC) under a civil bureaucrat is constituted to carry out all processes from the opening of commercial bids of the technically acceptable vendors to the conclusion of contract.

Civil bureaucrats posted to acquisition posts are neither selected for any special qualification nor for any exhibited talent. As a matter of fact no selection is carried out at all. It is not uncommon to see a bureaucrat from Poultry Development or Khadi Udyog departments being posted to the Defence Ministry to negotiate major contracts of intricate defence systems. A senior bureaucrat once remarked that it took him months before he understood military structures and acquired elementary knowledge of defence matters. He rued the fact that he had to bank on his common sense as he was provided no training or guidance. “We are asked to fend for ourselves and ensure own survival”, he added.

Price determination and contract negotiations call for special training. Skills are required with respect to negotiation terminology, styles, techniques, legal implications of various contract situations and contract administration. Most officials go by their gut feeling as they are totally ignorant of various scientific tools.

Defence Finance Functionaries

Defence Finance functionaries play a decisive role as they remain closely associated throughout the whole process from the initiation of a proposal to the signing of the contract. They are required to vet tender documents, appraise commercial proposals, determine fair price, prepare comparative statement of bids to identify lowest bidder, assist in the conduct of negotiations and contract drafting.

Financial issues in acquisition include cost estimating, earned value analysis and total ownership cost reduction studies. The designated role of the Indian Defence Accounts Service cadre is restricted to the provision of accounting cover and audit. Having graduated in languages and humanities, most do not possess even elementary knowledge of economics but are expected to apply economic tools to procurement proposals to help evolve the most suitable alternative. It is grossly unfair to them. India is perhaps the only country where defence economic advisory functions are performed by officials who neither know economics nor defence imperatives. There is a total mismatch between the proficiency required by financial experts in defence procurements and their knowledge of account keeping and auditing. equipment

Peculiarities of Defence Procurements

Procurement of defence equipment is not a routine governmental activity that can be performed by all with desired results. Some of the major peculiarities are as follows: -

Funds involved are very large and the quality of equipment selected has a profound influence on national defence potential.

There is no open tendering. Invitations are sent to a few selected vendors. A fine balance has to be maintained between need for generating competition and security requirements.

Most of the sophisticated equipment has to be imported as the indigenous defence industry is still in a nascent stage.

There are a limited number of producers in the world market and still fewer are ready to part with their top of the line products. The problem gets compounded where technology transfer is sought as an essential part of the package.

Major weapon producers in the world are, in fact, systems integrators only. Various sub-assemblies are produced in different countries. This complicates the issues while negotiating life cycle support for the equipment, as the export policies of all of them have to be factored in.

Countries have different norms for issuance of licence for export. Many impose riders on the usage of equipment. Yet, there are countries whose domestic laws preclude assured subsequent sustenance of the equipment bought.

There are strong political and corporate lobbies at work to push their products. Defence procurements are intrinsically linked to a nation’s foreign policy and diplomatic interests.

As there is an element of secrecy in the procurement process, all decisions come under scrutiny subsequently. Therefore, it becomes essential to follow the procedure diligently. Deviations, if any, have to be accounted for. All decisions have to be and must be seen to be above board and in the country’s interest.

Selection of the most suitable equipment is a complex and time-consuming process as a large number of functionaries are involved.

A Look at Select Nations

All developed countries recognise the fact that acquisition of defence equipment is a highly specialised and complex activity needing extraordinary professional skills and unique attributes. They not only select personnel for acquisition functions after due diligence but equip them with necessary skills through regular training in various disciplines. Three leading nations are discussed hereunder.

The United States of America

As per the provisions of the Defence Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA), all members of the Defence Acquisition Workforce have to be certified for the position they hold. A Defence Acquisition University (DAU) has been established for conducting training courses in 13 career disciplines with three certification levels (entry, intermediate and senior). The mission of DAU is to ‘provide a global learning environment to support a mission-ready Defence

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