By: Vivek Raghuvanshi
NEW DELHI — India's government has started working on establishing a new Defence Procurement Organization, or DPO, which will be responsible for speeding up the procurement of weapons and equipment.
"The new DPO is aimed at ensuring quicker procurement of weaponry both from domestic and overseas sources as well," a senior Ministry of Defense official said. The new organization will also ensure that the entire budget is spent. Every year, over $1 billion is surrendered by MoD because of delays in procurements.
Procuring weapons sometimes takes over 10 years, and in that time, the price increases and requirements can become redundant. "Tenders are cancelled midway without much reason bringing hardship in financial terms to overseas bidders who have to prepare for the bidding process and bring their weaponry for trials at their cost," said an executive of an overseas defense company here without being named.
"Though here is a well-defined structure within the current Acquisition Wing in MoD to take care of procurements, there is lack of well-intentioned coordination between the user (defense forces), MoD and the Finance Wings," the MoD official admitted.
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