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SLAF’s high security equipment goes missing en route to China for repairs
The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) lost a radar receiver and antenna scanner when they were being sent to China for repairs in 2014, documents presented this week to Parliament reveal.
The missing items — estimated to be worth more than Rs. 98 million — were from an F-7 aircraft and could be a threat to national security and global security if they had fallen into the hands of any terrorist group, the SLAF’s Legal Director has said in a letter to Parliament’s Committee on Public Accounts (COPA). He says the occurrence of such incident may cause to tarnish the image of the Air Force as well.
The details are among documents presented to Parliament this week in response to matters raised in the recent COPA report regarding the SLAF. A complaint was lodged with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and legal action initiated against the local freight forwarder, M/s Care Logistics (Pvt) Ltd, but the items have not been located yet.
Efforts to contact the company on its online numbers failed. The Managing Director’s mobile phone, the number of which was published on the Sri Lanka Shippers’ Council website, was also switched off.
It is also revealed that, by oversight, the SLAF’s Foreign Repairs & Services Section had failed to take out an insurance policy on the items before they were dispatched. This meant the Air Force could not recover the loss through insurance.
The F-7 is the successor of the MiG-21 aircraft. It was manufactured by Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) of China. The faulty radar receiver and antenna scanner were dispatched for repair to M/s China National Aero Technology in Beijing. The value of the items is cited as US$ 536,000. The Air Force paid millions, too, to the freight forwarder.
The local freight forwarder reportedly handed the consignment over to the cargo division of Air Asia in April 2014. It was to be sent to China via Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur on a port-to-port basis.
But the SLAF found the equipment did not reach its destination in China. It inquired continuously about its whereabouts from the local freight forwarder but “they did not respond to the Air Force on the matter satisfactorily”.
In June 2015 — more than one year after the equipment went missing — SLAF’s Legal Director asked the Attorney General’s (AG) advice on what action to take. His letter states that consignment was used in the SLAF’s radar system and was “highly secured military equipment” which “should not be put into the hands of irrelevant parties”.
The freight forwarder later relayed to the SLAF a statement purportedly from Air Asia Cargo that the consignment was misplaced in Kuala Lumpur and they could not find it. The Director Legal told the AG that “this statement is unbelievable and unreliable” as the freight forwarder did not provide the SLAF with documentary evidence.
the SLAF then sought the assistance of Sri Lanka’s High Commission in Malaysia to trace the consignment, but it, too failed. From its tracking system, the SLAF learned that the airline had booked the air transport facility to dispatch the equipment to Kuala Lumpur and the final destination in China but “there is no evidence available to show that the consignment has been air lifted to respective locations”.
All subsequent efforts to find the cargo failed because the freight forwarder “did not give any valid reason for the misplacement of the consignment”. It only agreed to pay damages through insurance, but the SLAF rejected this as it is only equivalent to the insured sum of the consignment which was “very much less” than the actual value of it.
The AG advised the SLAF to lodge a complaint with the CID as the missing items could “be a threat to national security and global security if it has been put into the hands of any terrorist group and occurrence of such incident may cause to tarnish the image of the Air Force as well”.
It also advised the SLAF to file legal action against the freight forwarder to claim damages. A CID complaint was duly lodged. The investigation report has now been forwarded to the AG for further action.
A court of inquiry was also convened internally. In its response to COPA, the SLAF has said the Air Force Commander has recommended that Rs 493,438.38 (five percent of the total value of the missing items) be recovered from the officer who failed to take out insurance. He has also suggested that the remaining Rs 98,194,092.87 be claimed from M/s Care Logistics.
On COPA orders, the Ministry of Defence was informed to have the company blacklisted and banned from transactions with any other Government institution.