On September 11, 2020 Government of India constituted an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) under the chairmanship of Union Minister for Defence, Rajnath Singh to oversee the Corporatisation of Ordnance Factory Board (OFB).
Ministers in EGoM:
The Ministers in EGoM includes Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister for Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of State for Labour and Employment Santosh Kumar Gangwar and Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievance and Pension Jitendra Singh.
Background:
On May 16,2020, Government of India announced a move to convert OFB, which is a subordinate office of defence ministry, into one or more government-owned corporate entities to improve the autonomy, accountability and efficiency in ordnance supplies.
Terms of Reference (ToR):
The ToR for the EGoM will include
i.Decision on the conversion of OFB into single Defence Public Sector Undertaking (DPSU) or multiple DPSUs.
ii.Issues related to various categories of employees in OFB such as salary and pension of existing employees.
iii.The financial support to be provided to entities to make them economically feasible and making them self-reliant.
iv.Grandfathering (A provision in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations while a new rule will apply to all future cases) of orders executed by OFB or for facilities created in OFB.
v.They will also decide about the treatment for Land Assets of OFB.
Suggestions to be placed before EGoM:
All the employee unions or associations at the “Board/Factory/Unit level” will place their suggestion, issue and concerns relating to corporatisation of OFB to EGoM.
Consultants for Corporatisation:
KPMG Advisory Services Private Limited and Khaitan & Company were selected as consultants to the Department of Defence for corporatisation of OFB.
Ordnance Factory Board:
i.Ordnance Factory Board is a Government Agency under the control of Department of Defence Production (DDP), Ministry of Defence (MoD), Government of India.
ii.It is involved in research, development, production of product range in the areas of air, land and sea systems.
iii.OFB has 41 factories to produce ordnance for the country’s armed forces.
Recent Related News:
i.On February 26, 2020, OFB became the 1st government entity to adopt centralised invoicing platform, TreDS (Trade Receivables Electronic Discount System).
ii.On June 3, 2020, the Acquisition Wing of Ministry of Defence (MoD)has ordered Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) in Telangana’s Medak, to supply 156 BMP 2/2k Infantry Combat Vehicles (ICVs) worth Rs 1,094 crore
About Ordnance Factory Board(OFB):
Director General, chairman – C S Vishwakarma
Headquarters – Kolkata
