The Comptroller and Auditor General on Friday said that as many as a third of the indigenous Akash surface-to-air missiles have failed basic tests. Another audit conducted by CAG found several flaws in the 2016-17 Defence Pension system. The reports were presented in the Parliament on Friday.

“The missiles fell short of the target, had lower than the required velocity, and there was malfunctioning of critical units,” said the CAG audit of the Indian Air Force, adding it also “posed an operational risk during hostilities.”

Advertisement

The Air Force has refused to comment on the report, NDTV reported.

The missile systems were to be installed at six designated sites, between 2013 and 2015. But till date, none of the missile systems have been installed, the CAG report said. The missiles were bought from Bharat Electronic Limited for Rs 3,619.25 crore. The audit said a delay in civil works at the sites pushed the installation of the missile systems behind schedule.

The audit on the defence pension found incomplete accounting of expenditure, inefficiencies in the authorisation process and flaws in the distribution system.

Advertisement

Public Sector Banks

The government auditor also expressed its concerns over the capability of the public sector banks’ re-capitalisation initiative to raise Rs 1.1 lakh crore from the market before 2019 in another report.

The PSBs are expected to raise money along with the capital infusion of Rs 70,000 crore to meet their capital requirement of Rs 1.8 lakh crore under the Indradhanush plan. This requirement is as per the global risk norms Basel III, PTI reported.

However, the CAG report said the banks were able to raise only Rs 7,726 crore between January 2015 and March 2017. “This raises doubts on the possibility of raising the balance, amounting to over a lakh crore, from the market by 2019,” it said in the report.