The Government on Thursday sacked 13 officers of Indian Ordnance Factories Service for their unsatisfactory performance. There are 39 Ordnance factories manufacturing weapons and manned by nearly 1,700 Group 'A' officers of this service and this is the first time such a measure was taken. Moreover, the dismissal comes in the backdrop of ordnance factories repeatedly failing to meet the production timelines and the armed forces do not have ammunition and spare parts to fight an intense war for more than 10 days.
The forcible retirement of these officers came after the Government initiated rigorous screening of overall performance of its officers, based on their service records, Defence Ministry officials said here. The pruning was undertaken to improve the performance of ordnance factories by making its officers accountable to ensure delivery of quality products to armed forces in prescribed timelines.
The Indian Ordnance Factories Service, which is an organized Group 'A' central service is responsible to ensure that the factories are always geared to cater to varied logistical needs of the armed forces. Nearly 1,720 officers of this service provide requisite leadership to more than one lakh employees of the ordnance factories which manufacture weapons ranging from missiles to rifles.
The Comptroller and Auditor General(CAG) in its report tabled in Parliament last month flagged its concern over inordinate delays in production of ammunition and weapons
As regards premature retirement of 13 officers, officials said action was taken as per Fundamental Rule 56(j) and Rule 48(1)(b) of Central Civil Service(pension) Rules, 1972. After having assessed the overall performance of the Indian Ordnance Factories Service, the Government then decided to retire 13 officers in public interest due to their overall unsatisfactory performance, they said.
The Government can review the performance of all central service officers after they above the age of 50, officials added.