New Delhi: Raksha Mantri Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman has approved the enhancement of powers of the Vice Chief of the Armed Forces in respect of Proprietary Article Certificate (PAC) and Single Tender Enquiry (STE) procurement cases with the objective to empower our forces for ensuring operational preparedness. Till now, powers for procurement of articles under PAC and STE had been restricted to 50 and 5 per cent respectively of normal powers delegated for revenue procurements. Wherever full powers had been delegated in respect PAC and STE, a cap of Rs 50 crore and Rs 5 crore respectively were made applicable.
A number of initiatives have been taken by the Ministry of Defence, in the recent past, to simplify and streamline the procedures and decentralise the decision-making through delegation of powers. Now, the Government has enhanced financial delegation to the Armed Forces in respect of Revenue Procurement as well.
With this delegation, the powers of the Vice Chiefs in respect of PAC cases, hitherto restricted to 50 per cent of competitive bidding cases, has been increased and made equal to the powers delegated in competitive bidding cases. In respect of STE cases, the powers have been enhanced to 50 per cent of the powers of competitive bidding cases from the existing cap of 5 per cent of competitive bidding powers.
This delegation will greatly enhance the ability of the Armed Forces to keep a high degree of serviceability of the in-service equipment, procurement of stores including ammunition, etc. thereby leading towards a significant boost in ensuring operational preparedness.
