New Delhi, December 20
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in a report presented in Parliament today, said the coastal security force set up after the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks still did not have full infrastructure.
CAG said the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) sanction in February 2009 following the November 2008 terror attack was for setting up a maritime force called the Sagar Prahari Bal. This was to be set up within three years to provide security to all coastal and offshore naval assets.
The plan was “diluted due to delays in creating the enabling setup (fast interception crafts (FICs), manpower and infrastructure,” CAG said. The specialised boats (FICs) were inducted into the force with a delay of 13 to 61 months, infrastructure for basing of these was not available (as of June 2021) at a few naval ports which was envisaged in the CCS sanction.
Manpower deployment at the officer level was deficient. The operational availability and exploitation of FICs since their induction at designated ports were sub-optimal, CAG said in its report on “Defence Services (Air Force and Navy)”.
Speaking on the project to upgrade runaways, CAG said contracts were awarded to ineligible contractors by compromising the tendering process, which resulted in the execution of poor quality of work as well as foreclosure.
“In one case, relating to runway works, the award of work to an ineligible contractor led to premature failure of runway, which in turn required fresh sanctioning and execution of work through another contractor for the same work,” CAG said.