New Delhi: The CBI has filed a corruption case against Rolls Royce and its Indian subsidiary, alleging that the engineering company paid "commissions" to a Singapore-based company, Aashmore Pvt Ltd, in order to secure contracts worth over Rs 4,700 crore from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
The Central Bureau of Investigation added that the commissions were also paid to Aashmore to secure contracts of supplying spare parts to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL).
As per the probe agency, parts of these commission payments were allegedly used to pay kickbacks to officials of HAL, GAIL, and ONGC, who were involved in the procurement process.
For deals with all three, Rolls Royce had engaged Ashok Patni, director of Aashmore as a commercial advisor in India. Patni has also been accused in the case.
The preliminary enquiry by CBI has revealed that Rolls Royce paid up to Rs 76.22 crore in commissions to companies related to Patni for securing contracts with HAL, GAIL, and ONGC between 2007 and 2011.
Officials said that this FIR was converted from a Preliminary Enquiry the agency had registered in 2014. Subsequently, two additional PEs were also registered by the probe agency against Rolly Royce.
In fact, the CBI said that it had requested Ashmore to provide bank account details in which these commissions were received, several times. But, the Singapore-based firm allegedly refused to cooperate.
The probe agency said that this non-cooperation from Aashmore, "shows that Aashmore Pvt Ltd is hiding the corrupt public servants of HAL, ONGC, and GAIL involved in the process of procurement and illegal gratification".
As per CBI's probe, an Energy Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul Centre Agreement was signed between Rolls Royce and HAL in June 2007.
According to this agreement, HAL was to provide maintenance, repair and overhaul services for GAIL and ONGC, with spare parts purchased from Rolls Royce.
However, the CBI alleged that Rolls Royce had engaged Patni in violation of the terms of the agreement and paid his company Aashmore commissions ranging from 10-11 percent of the total value of the purchase orders. Between 2007-2011, Rs 18.32 crore was paid to Aashmore's accounts.
Moreover, in a similar manner, Rolls Royce had engaged the services of Patni, allegedly in violation of the terms of agreement with ONGC and GAIL respectively.
In ONGC's case, Rolls Royce had allegedly paid Rs 29.81 crore to Aashmore in exchange for securing 73 purchase orders from the public service undertaking, with the CBI alleging that Patni's services were kept secret to "conceal the illegal payments made to Aashmore".
Rolls Royce was supposed to declare any Indian agent and the commission payable to them upfront, according to its deal with ONGC.
In fact, as part of this deal, Turbotech Energy Services International, another company related to Patni had allegedly paid Rs 10 lakh to ONGC Officers Mahila Samiti.
Furthermore, Rolls Royce allegedly paid almost GBP 1 million to Patni's Aashmore, in exchange for up to 68 purchase orders placed by GAIL, between 2007-2010. According to the CBI, the total amount paid in commission for projects with GAIL come up to around Rs 28.09 crore.
According to the CBI's FIR in the case, Rolls Royce had allegedly engaged in the payment of commissions to companies related to Ashok Patni, in order to pay kickbacks to public officials of GAIL, HAL, and ONGC who were in charge of the procurement of services.
The probe agency has accused the British engineering company of conspiring with its Indian subsidiary to misrepresent facts before all three public service undertakings, which kept placing purchase orders with them. Moreover, the CBI has also alleged correspondence about Rolls Royce supply orders between ONGC, GAIL officials and Patni.