A Sukhoi-30 fighter pilot (left) climbs into the cockpit

New Delhi, May 19: The Indian government had to shell out Rs 42 crore of taxpayers’ money to get a manual translated from Russian into English!

Even by the standards of corruption in defence deals that immunise moral and political sensibilities, this must be a record of sorts.

The Rs 42-crore figure is revealed in a report of a performance audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (no. 4 of 2006) on air force and navy acquisitions released here today. The first chapter of the report deals with the licensed manufacture of an aircraft. The design for the aircraft was acquired from a foreign country. The acquisition is identified only as aircraft ‘A’.

It is most certainly the Sukhoi 30 Mki, the frontline multi-role combat aircraft of the Indian Air Force.

The deal to acquire the Sukhoi was first contracted in November 1996 when Mulayam Singh Yadav was the defence minister.

Subsequently, delivery schedules and volumes were revised, and a general contract was signed in December 2000 when George Fernandes was the defence minister.

Imports as well as deliveries by the defence public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) have fallen way behind schedule, further draining the public exchequer. But there has been a strange consensus among successive political establishments and the Sukhoi deal has never become an issue.

Among all the faults in the Sukhoi deal ? that was during its time touted to be one of the cleanest defence acquisitions ? the brazen one is the failure to get the technical documentation in English.

The CAG report notes that “there was no provision for supply of technical documentation by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) duly translated into English which led to an expenditure of Rs 41.64 crore”.

The headquarters of the Indian Air Force, HAL and the defence ministry’s finance branch had emphasised that the Licensed Technical Documentation ? jargon for manual ? was to be procured after it was translated into English by the manufacturer, in this case the Sukhoi Design Bureau and the Sukhoi Aviation Corporation.

But the Price Negotiation Committee did not consider the suggestion and the manual was contracted to be supplied in Russian.

The CAG reports that “there was also no evidence to indicate that any effort was made by the ministry to impress upon the OEM either to supply the LTD in English or bear the cost of translation”.

The manual had to be translated into English by the defence ministry and filed “into suitable computer formats for storage, retrieval, distribution and updating at an estimated cost of Rs 41.64 crore”.

The CAG report has pointed out other anomalies in the deal. The upshot of the slippages is that the government approval obtained at the price level in 2000 for a total amount of Rs 22,122.78 crore for 140 aircraft had to be revised to Rs 39,224.09 crore in July 2005. The cost is now estimated to be more than Rs 45,000 crore.

All the Sukhoi 30 Mki aircraft were to be delivered by 2017-2018. But last month, the Cabinet Committee on Security ordered HAL to complete deliveries by 2011 because the IAF is worried about the depletion in its squadrons of fighter aircraft.