NEW DELHI Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has said that the new backlisting policy for defence companies involved in wrongdoings has been approved and will be out in public domain in next few weeks. “I have approved the blacklisting policy and it will be issued in next few days after corrections of spellings and grammar,” Mr Parrikar said in an interview to a weekly news magazine (The Week).Under the new
norms, blacklisting of firms indulging in corrupt practices will be done but “there would not be any madness in that process,” he said. This is been seen as a major shift in the policy that was being pursued during the previous UPA regime, in which blacklisting of the firms was said to be the order of the day.
“Why should we indulge in blanket blacklisting as it harms our interests? We will punish people for corruption, but we will not hesitate to buy a product from another company even if a blacklisted firm is its partner,” Mr Parrikar said.
Asked whether the government would ban the entire Finmeccanica Group, the parent firm of scam-tainted AgustaWestland, the Minister said,
“The firm has now changed its name to Leonardo. Now, how do we go out and find out which firm is part of Leonardo and where all Leonardo has its stakes? We will not go for blanket blacklisting.”
During the tenure of AK Antony, the Defence Ministry had banned Singapore Technologies and Rheinmetall Group of Germany for their alleged roles in the Ordnance Factory Board scam, resulting in delay of several critical projects. (AGENCIES)
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