The government on Thursday sacked 13 gazetted officers after the first-ever performance review of the Indian Ordnance Factory Services (IOFS).
IOFS officers, of the Group A Central Service, manage the 39 ordnance factories under the administrative control of the Department of Defence Production in the Defence Ministry. “Having assessed the overall performance of officers of the Indian Ordnance Factories Service, following the prescribed procedure, the government has decided to retire its 13 Group ‘A’ officers in public interest because of their overall unsatisfactory performance,” the Defence Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
CAG’s views
This development comes after a report by the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) which presented a dismal picture of the quality and availability of ammunition from the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB). “Shortfall in meeting the production target by OFB continued. Further, a majority of the cases of procurement from other than the OFB, which were initiated by the Army Headquarters during 2009-13, were pending as of January 2017,” said the report presented early this month.
There have been attempts in the recent past to improve the performance of ordnance factories by making officers to ensure delivery of quality products to the armed forces within the prescribed time lines.
Rule book
The statement added that one of the corrective measures was to “initiate a rigorous screening of overall performance of officers based on their entire service records.” This is as per the instructions contained in the Fundamental Rule 56(j) and Rule 48(1)(b) of the Central Civil Service (Pension) Rules, 1972, and prematurely retire the officers whose performance is not found up to the mark.
Someone who has put in 30 years of service or is above 50 in a Group A service will be in the rank of Director or Joint Secretary. “They will get pensionary benefits according to the number of years they have served,” a source said.
