Resolution adopted in the meeting of the Staff-side Members of OFB JCM II Level Council representing AIDEF, INDWF, BPMS & CDRA against the proposal of Corporatizing/Restructuring Ordnance Factories.
The Staff-side members of OFB JCM III Level council representing AIDEF, INDWF, BPMS & CDRA met on 27th Jan. 2015 at Kolkata and have seriously considered the developments which are taking place in the recent past with regard to the approach of the MoD towards OFB organization, especially with regard to the proposal to corporatize/Restructure the OFB organization. The staff side members of OFB JCM III Level Council representing the entire workforce of OF Organization has unanimously resolved to oppose any move of the Govt. to corporatize the OFB organization. We do not find any justified reasons for the Govt. to take suc a serious decision without proper assessment of the functioning of the Ordnance Factories. We fully believe that corporatization is not the solution for any improvement in the performance of the OFB. OFB is performing with all its efficiency despite various constrains such as:
(i) Uneconomic quantities produced to meet strategic needs. OFB is supplying more than 600 types of products per annum.
(ii) Long term indent not given by the Army
(iii) Procurement procedure is not industry-friendly since there is no provision for entering into long-term agreement with dedicated vendors.
(iv) Non-integration of Finance/Accounts functioning both at OFB as well as unit level.
(v) Dual responsibility for quality assurance by OFB and DGQA, and difficulties in alignment of roles for proper functioning of the organization.
(vi) Transition period during changeover from one weapon/equipment/ strategic uniform/vehicle etc. affects the workload of the Factories. Recent examples is Army has stopped taking INSAS Rifles. Army has not selected a suitable replacement of INSAS. To meet the requirement of Army, OFB has developed weapons like Amogh, JVPC, Excalibut 7.62 Assault Rifles, MCIWS etc through R&D efforts in collaboration with DRDO. However, because of the delay in the decision making prcess by Army, three Small Arms Factories are having acute shortage of workload which will have impact on the value of production of other related factories.
(vii) Products first developed by DRDO and then TOT for mass production given to Ordnance Factories result in delay in bulk production and capacity creation for the same.
R.SRINIVASAN
General Secretary
Indian National Defence Workers Federation
No. 6, 6th Street, Vaishnavi Nagar
CHENNAI – 600 109.
Source: http://indwf.blogspot.in/