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| INS Deepak (Image: Wiki Commons) |
Vivek Raghuvanshi
NEW DELHI — India's Ministry of Defence (MoD) is investigating Italian company Fincantieri over the purchase of two fleet tankers under the Indian National Congress-led government in 2009.
An MoD official said the probe is based on a complaint by an unnamed Indian Navy official who alleged that the tender for purchase of the tankers was manipulated to create a single vendor situation in favor of Fincantieri. The shipbuilder had won a $300 million tender in 2009 to supply two fleet tankers to the Indian Navy.
The Indian Navy had floated global tenders in 2005 to buy two tankers for the Indian Navy in which Russian, South Korean and Italian shipyards responded. One of the essential requirements was that the hull of the tankers would be constructed with superior, military-grade steel.
The requirement was lowered in the case of the Italian company after eliminating the other competitors in technical evaluation, thus the contract was given on a single-vendor basis, the complainant alleged, according to the MoD official.
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