Procuring Equipment for Homeland Security

Major General Mrinal Suman, AVSM, VSM, PhD
An accomplished defence procurement expert.

Since the 9/11 attacks, homeland security has come into enhanced focus. Nearer home, sheer audacity and magnitude of November 2008 strikes in Mumbai, which resulted in 173 deaths and 308 casualties, shocked the world. It also highlighted gaps existing in India’s internal security apparatus. It has been increasingly recognised that security of a nation has two components – external defence and internal security. Both are interdependent with overlapping functions. Emergence of asymmetric threats has blurred the earlier distinction. Although it may not be possible to avert terrorist acts altogether, highly trained, well equipped and alert police forces can certainly reduce their probability and minimise collateral damage.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is responsible for India’s internal security and has a number of central police forces under it for special tasks and to supplement states’ resources. As maintenance of law and order is a state subject, all states maintain considerable police, armed police and special police forces. India has 28 states and 7 Union Territories. Provisioning and procurement of all items for the modernisation of central police forces is handled by the Police Modernisation Division (PMD) of MHA. PMD also assists and oversees modernisation of state police forces, although most of the procurements are carried out by the state governments.

Presently, the police forces procure their requirement of commonly available stores either through the rate contracts negotiated by the Directorate General of Supply & Disposal (DGS&RD) or by resorting to local purchase. For specialised stores, global or national tenders are issued depending on their value, indigenous availability and type of technology incorporated.

All police organisations guard their turf with fierce fanaticism, with the result that the Indian internal security market is highly fragmented and dispersed with little centralised control. In the case of commonly procured items like bullet proof jackets and bullet proof vehicles, over 45 central and state police organisations are floating separate tenders. Such an environment suffers from the following major inadequacies:-

Instead of getting cost advantage through economies of scale by centralised procurement, piecemeal procurements result in excessive expenditure.
Most police organisations lack required expertise to process cases and are invariably taken in by unscrupulous traders. More importantly, they do not possess required trial and evaluation facilities to ensure quality of products.

No data bank of competent producers is available with most organisations and hence they fail to generate adequate competition. Tenders are issued to a few local vendors only.
Every organisation has to spare manpower and resources to affect procurements.
Due to multifariousness of products procured, there is little inter-operability between the equipment held by different organisations. Lack of standardisation results in poor inventory management as well.   

Products relating to the following areas are common to both the armed forces and the police organisations:-

• Weapons and protection systems, both for individuals and vehicles.
• Sights and night vision devices.
• Communications, data transmission systems and mobile command & control centres.
• Explosives sensors and disposal equipment.
• Early warning security and surveillance systems.
• Radio interceptors and jammers.
• Decontamination systems.
• Simulators for training.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has a dedicated Acquisition Wing with well evolved defence procurement procedure and processes in place. It procures equipment as per well-evolved parameters. It maintains a comprehensive data bank of indigenous and foreign producers of repute. With a view to generate maximum competition, tender documents are issued to up to 50 vendors. A three-stage technical evaluation process validates compliance of parameters in actual terrain and climatic conditions. The field trials regime is well-recognised in the world for its exhaustiveness and exacting test methodology. By making use of field units, training establishments, defence R&D laboratories and quality assurance organisation, it is ensured that all aspects of equipment under trials get covered.

The police forces can benefit immensely by tapping MoD’s procurement regime for their requirement of specialised equipment that is acquired by the defence forces also. For emergent requirements, the Acquisition Wing can be approached to ascertain if it had procured similar equipment in the recent past. If that be so, indenting police organisation can buy the item expeditiously by placing a repeat supply order. As earlier MoD procurement would have been done after stringent technical appraisal in multi-vendor competition, quality and cost-effectiveness are assured.

In the case of planned requirements, the Acquisition Wing can be intimated in advance to enable it to club all quantities while initiating procurement action. In addition to generating increased competition, sheer economies of scale would result in huge savings. Representatives of the indenting police forces can be associated with field trials and technical evaluation of the equipment. This will also enhance credibility and transparency of transactions.

Commonality of equipment held by the defence forces and the police forces will help both as higher sales would encourage foreign vendors to establish required support infrastructure in India to service their products.

For routine requirements, the police forces can continue to follow the current system of resorting to local purchases or DGS&RD rate contracts.

According to reports appearing in the press, the Union Government is likely to spend over USD 7.5 billion and state governments close to USD 2 billion on the modernisation of their police organisations in the near future. Bulk of the expenditure would be on arms, ammunition, transport, communication equipment and explosive handling devices. All these items are being procured by the defence forces for their own use. The police forces can derive enormous benefits by synergising their requirements. A cell headed by a senior police officer can be established in the Acquisition Wing to carry out liaison functions and to act as an interface.

Homeland security is no more of peripheral concern. Like the rest of the world, India has also woken up to the threat that can be posed to national security by a few fanatic elements resorting to attacking soft targets within the country. Indian police forces must make use of MoD’s procurement organisation and infrastructure to acquire well evaluated equipment expeditiously and at competitive costs.

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