India orders probe into Rolls-Royce deal

Premier investigating agency to look into kickbacks allegedly paid over purchase of jet engines.

The Rolls-Royce aero engines were being procured to power Hawk advanced jet trainers [Reuters]

India’s defence ministry has ordered a bribery investigation over state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s (HAL) purchase of jet engines from Britain’s Rolls-Royce Holdings in a deal worth at least $1.2bn.

The Central Bureau of Investigation, the country’s top investigative agency, will look into more than 5bn rupees ($80m) in alleged kickbacks in the deal that was signed in 2011, a ministry official told Reuters news agency on Monday.

No comment was immediately available from Rolls-Royce’s office in India.

Suspicions of corruption in India’s defence procurement programme have for years delayed the modernisation of the armed forces of the world’s most populous nation that continue to rely heavily on outdated Soviet-designed equipment.

The air force has been dogged by a series of crashes of its Russian-built MiG fighter jets, while an accident aboard a Soviet-made submarine that killed two officers last week led the navy’s chief of staff to resign.

India’s Congress party-led government is keen to be seen as tough on graft before parliamentary elections due by May.

The party, lagging in the polls, has faced rising public anger over a string of corruption scandals in its current term.

Graft scandals

The investigation into the HAL deal follows the arrest in Britain last month of Indian-born businessman Sudhir Choudhrie and his son in a bribery investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into Rolls-Royce’s dealings in China and Indonesia.

Both men denied any wrongdoing and have been released on bail, their spokesman said last month.

While there was no indication that the latest investigation was linked to the Choudhries, newspapers reported that HAL’s “vigilance wing” had raised the alarm after hearing allegations that Rolls-Royce had hired consultants to advise on the deal.

Such lobbyists are explicitly banned under India’s defence procurement system.

The Rolls-Royce aero engines were being procured to power Hawk advanced jet trainers, used to prepare Indian defence force pilots to fly next-generation fighter jets.

Source: News Agencies