In its report on public sector undertakings tabled in Parliament on Thursday, the CAG detected that HAL had procured a large quantity of bearings of Adour engines, used in fighter jets, from a French firm without conducting field trials.

The report said HAL was authorised to procure bearings from SNFA France in October 2000 at a meeting with Centre for Military Airworthiness (CEMILAC) and Ministry of Defence as part of plans to develop an alternative source.

Till then, the sole supplier for mainline bearings used in Adour engines was UK-based Rolls Royce.

It was also decided that HAL would apprise Air Headquarters about the introduction of SNFA bearings on Adour engines and furnish test flight records for 600 and 1,200 operational hours respectively. However, the company went ahead and purchased 235 bearings from SNFA at a cost of Rs 5.08 crore.

“Though the company fitted SNFA mainline and sent three engines for service evaluation, it could not achieve the prescribed specification of 600-1,200 operational hours. Thus, in the absence of final evaluation reports Air Headquarters did not approve the fitment of SNFA bearings on in-service engines, even as of April 2007,” the CAG report said.