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| Sunday, 7 September 2003 |
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Politics |  |
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'Bushmaster' weapons controversy : No mishandling of funds - Marapana Minister of Defence Transport and Civil Aviation Tilak Marapana has denied any mishandling in the purchase of weapons for the Naval Fast-Attack Craft. The Minister has also released a statement over a controversy given publicity with regard to a weapon called the 'Bushmaster'. The prime allegation was that this weapon 'Bushmaster' is available at a much cheaper rate but the Navy is about to purchase instead a weapon costing approximately three times more than the 'Bushmaster.' Minister Marapana states that this is absolutely incorrect and that the prices compared with the cost of a cannon including the cost of integration of the cannon to an existing Israeli fire control system (weapons system consisting of an Electro Optical Device, the mount containing the gyro, computer system and the cannon). Minister Marapana further states "The proposed transaction was subjected to my examination and a Cabinet paper presented by me was approved by the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Budget and Tenders, and finally by the Cabinet itself. The proposal was not the purchase of a complete weapon system but the upgrading of existing 15 Israeli manufactured Fire Control Systems already fitted on 15 of our fast-attack craft, by replacing the existing 23 mm cannons with 30 mm cannons and modifying the rest of the system to accommodate this change of cannon. "In the first place, this upgrade can only be attended to by the Israeli government owned company who are the manufacturers of this Control Systems. The cannon could be of any make, but the installation of the cannon and the upgrade of the Fire Control System consequent to a change of the cannon can only be done by this Israeli company. The technical know-how and the accessories necessary for this exercise is available only with this Israeli company (being the manufacture of this system) and the Government of Sri Lanka, at the time of the purchase of these systems, has signed an agreement with this company preventing any other party modifying or upgrading the systems. "Therefore, when the Navy wished to have the systems upgraded by replacing the existing 23 mm cannon with a 30 mm cannon (to get a better range), the Israeli Government was requested to submit offers for this purpose. They submitted three offers using three deferent makes of 30 mm cannon including the 'Bushmaster' cannon. "According to the Israeli offer, the total cost of the upgrade using the 'Bushmaster' cannon was around US$ 824,000 using a Swiss made 'Oerlikon' cannon, was US$ 724,000 and with a Russian cannon US$ 553,000 per Fire Control System. The upgrade using the Russian cannon was rejected by the Evaluation Committee as it involved a deck modification (at a further cost to be borne by the Navy) and the 'Oerlikon' was chosen being the cheaper. "Therefore, it is absolutely incorrect to state that the cheaper 'Bushmaster' was rejected in favour of a more expensive cannon. The 'Bushmaster' suppliers did later make an offer to supply the cannon at US$ 228,472 per cannon, but this was the price for the cannon alone and does not include the cost of the upgrade to the system which, as I said earlier, could be executed only by the Israeli company which manufactured the Fire Control System to which this cannon is to be fitted. The Israeli company had already quoted US$ 824,000 if it is to upgrade this system using a 'Bushmaster' cannon." Navy Commander Vice Admiral Daya Sandagiri has also explained Navy's stance in a similar statement to the Press. |
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