The parliamentary standing committee on defence has recommended that retired officers from the armed forces of the rank of Brigadier and above should be allowed to join the private sector only after a period of five years from leaving service.
The committee made the recommendation after observing that “some of the retired defence officers work with the private sector and act as a middleman for the defence procurement”.
The report stated that the period of joining a private sector after retirement was reduced to one year. “The committee is of the strong view that the aforesaid period needs to be increased to five years for the officers of the rank of Brigadier and above, and their equivalents which would certainly help in addressing the issue of blacklisting of technologies”.
Addressing the issue of blacklisting of companies, the panel said, “The committee observes that the blacklisting of companies ultimately results in blacklisting of the rarest technologies and the solutions in this regard need to be found.”
As reported earlier, the committee had noted how blacklisting of some companies had hit the process of modernisation.
The committee also said the proposal to increase the delegation of financial powers to the Service chiefs from Rs50 crores to Rs150 crores or even Rs200 crores merits consideration.