Expressing its dissatisfaction over the manner in which the Delhi high court disposed of Mittal’s law suit ‘which is very crucial and important’, a bench of Justices RV Raveendran and AK Patnaik have given one month to solicitor general Rohington Nariman to submit the inquiry report and the status report in a sealed cover.
NTRO was created by the Central government in 2004 under Prime Minister Office to deal with missile monitoring, satellite and airborne imagery, cyber patrolling and security, cyber offensive operations, communication support systems and cryptology.
Mittal’s petition argued by Jayant Bhushan, the son of Shanti Bhushan, said that the NTRO since the financial year 2005 has been allotted about Rs8,000 crore. Since the agency describes itself as the `secret service’, its accounts have been without any detailed CAG audit.
Out of total funding, 25% or Rs2,000 crore, is said to be Secret Service Fund (SSF) of which there is no accounting.
In response to a RTI query, the Director General of Audit said a government memorandum stipulates that “the accounts of secret service expenditure will not be subjected to scrutiny by the audit authority”.
Bhushan said the public money, though used for the national security service, couldn’t be left for misappropriation.
Mittal’s law suit said the inquiries conducted in NTRO transactions, established that almost all the allegations levelled by him on corruption, irregularities in procurement of equipment and recruitments have been found to be correct. All the efforts have been made by the government “to suppress these inquire reports”.
It was national security adviser Shiv Sankar Menon who had ordered an inquiry into corruption in the NTRO.
Sources say the CAG audit found security lapses in laying down specifications for procurement. The audit has also noticed possible misuse of secret funds but these funds are out of its purview. In fact, Rai had to request then National Security Advisor (NSA) M.K. Narayanan for permission for the "special audit". The NTRO reports directly to the NSA. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave the final go-ahead. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) had received a spate of complaints about the functioning of the NTRO with reference to the purchase of expensive, substandard equipment, including a satellite communication terminal, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and equipment needed for cyber monitoring. After a rigorous audit that has taken a year, the CAG has found several anomalies in the procurement of equipment. It found the NTRO was routinely misrepresenting projects. The chairman of NTRO is authorised to sanction projects worth Rs.20 crore. For any sum more than that, sanction from the PMO and the Cabinet is required.
Sources say bigger projects were broken into smaller ones, all requiring less than Rs.20 crore each. For example, while purchasing satellite monitoring equipment for Thuraya phones in 2007-08, the NTRO drew up an estimate of Rs.52 crore. Instead of going to the pmo for approval, it broke up the project into three smaller ones-two monitoring sets, each worth Rs.20 crore, and one Rs.12-crore expansion set.
The CAG found several irregularities in the UAV project valued at Rs.300 crore in 2007-08. It did not call a tender and negotiated directly with the Israel Aerospace Industries. The NTRO also failed to foresee the requirement for a ground-operated Electronic Intelligence (ElInt) System. Later, instead of seeking approval from the Cabinet, the NTRO chairman personally approved the Rs.20 crore ElInt system, and then merged it with the UAV project.
In a case of serious security violation, the intelligence agency ignored a mandatory check in the purchase of an encryption system for its mobile satellite communication system, Sampark. Any encryption system has to be first approved by the DRDO's Scientific Analysis Group (SAG), the country's only crypto evaluation lab. The NTRO purchased the Rs.20-crore equipment without the SAG check in 2008. Later, when the air force was looking for an encryption system, it went to SAG with the same system and it was rejected because it had several Chinese parts, a potential security threat. The system was banned but the NTRO had already used it for seven months.
In another major violation in the purchase of a satellite communication terminal, NTRO laid down specifications that suited only one company, Singapore Technologies (ST). So, all the four bidders-BEL, ECIL, ITI and Ericom-quoted st. By the time tenders were opened, the Government had blacklisted ST. NTRO then went into an overdrive and finalised negotiations in an unprecedented 48 hours to beat the actual notification of the blacklisting. The tender was eventually withdrawn.
According to established practice, intelligence agencies are subjected only to an internal audit conducted by an official of the Audit and Accounts Service, posted in the particular intelligence organisation as a representative of CAG. The reports are kept secret and only discussed internally. Only an intimation of the audit having been carried out is sent to the CAG.
Set up in 2004, on the recommendation of the Kargil Review Committee, the NTRO has an annual budget of Rs.750 crore. Since its inception, it has received continuous flak for its poor performance and failure to provide any meaningful and actionable intelligence. The agency has failed to recruit people qualified to carry out its mandate. "The Government does not have such experts. The work requires high-value experts who will always be paid much higher in the private sector,'' an official explained. Several retired IPS officers, Intelligence Bureau and R&AW sleuths have been hired to fill up posts. There were some scientists, including former NTRO chief KVSS Prasad Rao.
There are demands to close down the NTRO but that is not an option the PMO is considering. NSA Shivshankar Menon has been trying to get the organisation back on track. "More than Rs.2,000 crore has been spent on its equipment since it was set up. There definitely is some potential which can be exploited,'' says a PMO official.
Not Adding UpNTRO misrepresented facts in a bid to eliminate a mandatory process
Against the law
Rs.300 crore: Bought UAVs from Israel without calling a tender
Splitting it up
Rs.39 crore: Used for setting up a UAVairfield near Dehradun.The cost was divided into Rs.20 crore and Rs.19 crore to avoid getting approval from PMO, mandatory for any project above Rs.20 crore.
Irregular approach
Rs.52 crore: For purchasing satellite monitoring equipment.Broke project into three smaller ones to avoid mandatory PMO permission.
Violating security
Rs.20 crore: Purchased encryption system for its mobile satellite communication system without DRDO approval. The system was banned because it contained Chinese parts.
SOURCES : INDIA TODAY
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