MiGs are coming but questions over air pockets

The Sunday Times exclusive revelation last week about serious questions over Sri Lanka's latest and largest military deal worth several billions of rupees — the procurement of four MiG-27 ground attack aircraft and overhaul to seven others now with the Air Force — has had its sequel.

The first official response after the newspaper disclosed the details of the purchase of these jets came from defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella. He told Parliament, “a weekend newspaper carried an article titled ‘Big fraud and billion rupee scandal in latest MiG deal’. We are willing to directly, at any time as necessary, give details of these dealings.”

At a news conference on Friday, however, Mr. Rambukwella went into some detail. He said the Defence Ministry totally denied the report. “Documents that can be given or that can be produced are available at the Ministry. Anyone who wishes to peruse them can do so. Of course, I must say when it comes to transparency, there are also concerns.”

Though he did not want to go into details, Mr. Rambukwella said “a very friendly country offered to refurbish (the existing fleet of MiGs). The cost was almost equivalent to ones that we would purchase refurbished. All the documents are available.”

He declared “the person behind the whole thing (The Sunday Times revelations) is supposed to be the richest person in Asia, a former member of the Air Force. He was deprived of an extension of service due to his track record. He is the person who has given it without any clarification. Anyone who wishes to have details is at liberty to make a request. They will be given the information.”

At the news conference, a few questions followed. In answer to one, Mr. Rambukwella said “A friendly country offered us a figure to refurbish four, but we managed to get it from another source for the same price of refurbishment with four new aircrafts.”

Question: Are the four brand new?
Answer: Not four brand new.
The questions and answers ended there.
The Sunday Times availed itself of the offer made both, by Mr. Rambukwella and a senior official of the Ministry of Defence to see the documents related to the deal. A senior Editor thereafter met the official at the Ministry.

The senior official perused some documents relating to this mega-deal in the presence of The Sunday Times representative, but no files were made available to him. An explanation was made regarding the purchase of these aircraft. The senior official however refused to be formally quoted on any of the matters.

Initially, he claimed that the negotiations over the latest MiG deal had gone on from 2002.

However, The Sunday Times investigations confirmed that the offer for the deal was made only in June this year.
Among the points made, some in response to questions, were:

• After we came to power, we asked all three Service Commanders what their weapons and equipment needs were. They all gave what they wanted. Air Force purchases are very expensive. Even a small spare part costs millions. It was the Air Force that wanted these MiGs. An Evaluation Committee was appointed. It included a senior lecturer from the Moratuwa University, and the Air Force Commander. The University lecturer was not our nominee. We wrote to the University asking them to name a nominee. They carried out an independent evaluation.
  The Sunday Times news item did not refer in any way to the Technical Evaluation Committee or its findings. It was not relevant to the news item. The Sunday Times is aware this Committee submitted a 14-page report on April 26, this year. The purpose of this committee was only to "evaluate the proposal" for the supply of four MiG aircraft, overhaul of three MiGs and one trainer MiG aircraft.
• Asked about the date of manufacture of the four MiGs, the official said he thinks they were made in the 1990s. Asked why such a high price was paid for them, he points out that the price of another supplier (from a very friendly country which Mr. Rambukwella also referred to) was higher. He says the Ukranian suppliers had agreed to expand the life span of the aircraft for seven more years.
  The Sunday Times investigations revealed that of the four MiG-27s that are being purchased, two were made in 1980, one in 1981 and another in 1983. They were leftovers from two previous purchases as revealed last week.
• The official explained that it was only to avoid going through the (tender) process again that a deal was signed one day before a state company to handle military procurements was established by the Ministry of Defence. "We are committed to transparency in military procurements. Recently even the Central Bank Governor was asked to nominate experts to serve on a panel to identify loopholes in procurement procedures. One of the cases recommended was the study of the Mig-27 deal," he said.
• The offshore company in UK (Bellimissa Holdings Ltd.) mentioned in The Sunday Times news item has nothing to do with the deal. It is entirely a Government-to-Government deal. The UK company comes into the scene at the request of the Ukrainians who insisted that the financing of the deal should be made through this company. They are only involved in the financing part of it. The senior Defence Ministry official said that his remarks were not a clarification of The Sunday Times news item, and that the newspaper should await the return of the Commander of the Air Force, for greater clarification on the questions that need to be raised, and then publish the official version.

The Commander, Air Marshal Roshan Gunathillake, is now in Ukraine to take delivery of the MiG-27 aircraft that are being purchased.