Embarrassed by a series of scams allegedly involving army officers, Army Chief General V K Singh today said he was mulling putting in place a vigilance mechanism that will help the force carry out internal audits.

"One of the things we could have done better is to create some sort of a vigilance mechanism within the Army. At the moment we do not have this. We are looking at it very seriously," Singh told a press conference here.

The General said a vigilance mechanism would assist the Army in carrying out "internal audits at the right time".

The image of the armed forces has been hit due to alleged involvement of its officers in a number scams, including the the Sukhna land scam in Darjeeling and the Adarsh housing scam in Mumbai, in which a finger of suspicion being raised at a former Army Chief.

"Let me assure you that today we have been taking suo motu action on a lot of issues that happen," he said.

On the involvement of former Army Chief, Singh said the army has handed over the matter to the Defence Ministry as it does not have the necessary tools to hold an inquiry into such issues.

"As the issue relates to a former Army Chief and some senior officers who have since retired, we have handed over the matter to the Defence Ministry for action," Singh said.

He said the Army does not want to waste its time on these matters as it does not have to powers to conduct an inquiry against retired army officers.

"We do not have the tools to check bank accounts and issues like that. Hence, we have handed over the matter to the Defence Ministry for action," the General said

Singh was replying to specific questions on action taken in the Adarsh housing scam, the Sukhna land scam and the fresh revelation of alleged irregularities related to a piece of land in Kandivli, a Mumbai suburb which the Army had taken on rent from Maharashtra government.

To a question on making the assets of the Army chief public, Singh said he was sure it would be in the public domain at some point of time.

"There are a lot of things which are not in the public domain where the Army is concerned. I am sure at some point of time this will be in the public domain," he said.

The General said there was already a system within the Army where an officer has to file details of every purchase and sale of movable and immovable asset.

"For any acquisition of movable or immovable property, we file a return right from the time we get commissioned. It is available for our records. Anybody who sees that knows as to what each individual has as his belonging," he said.

Singh said he had also tried to impress upon the soldiers to trust their chain of command and speak up if anything wrong is being done.

He also said whatever matters have come up were related only to a few officers and it would be wrong to paint the entire army with the same brush.