NEW DELHI — Amid charges of millions of pounds of secret kickbacks by UK aviation major Rolls-Royce to an Indian-origin arms middleman in London, an internal inquiry in the [Indian] defence ministry concluded that around Rs 500 crores (67.6 million euros—Ed.) was paid as commission to a Singapore-based firm named Aashmore Consultants. The report was submitted to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar a few months back.
The commission was allegedly paid for clinching deals for Rolls-Royce to supply Adour MK 871-07 aero engines for the Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer aircraft.
“Payment of 10 per cent commission from Rolls-Royce to one Ashok Patni of Aashmore Consultants, out of the amount of Rs 5,000 crores, works out to Rs 500 crores… This amount paid in an unauthorised manner needs to be recovered from the agent and other beneficiaries and credited into the public fund of the government,” a copy of the report accessed by this newspaper states.
“MoD may like to take requisite action for recovery of these unauthorised commission amounts urgently”, it adds.
If the payment of around Rs. 500 crores was made by RR as reported, what was it for? I imagine RR is able to sell Adour engines to a Hawk user without needing any help.
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November 2, 2016 at 2:32 pm