The CAG on Friday pulled up the Army and Ordnance Factory Board(OFB) for critical shortage of ammunition due to inefficient management leading to a situation where the Army has just 10 days of ammunition to fight a war as against the norm of 40 days of stocks known as War Wastage Reserve.
Noting that this shortage had impacted the operational preparedness of the Army, the CAG in its report tabled in Parliament on ammunition management by the Army, said the overall holding of ammunition was continuously depleting over the years and was more prominent in high calibre ammunition.
The inability of OFB to meet the demand of Army was a major cause for shortage of ammunition, the CAG said adding despite limited production capacity vis-a-vis the requirement of Army, OFB accepted the targets for supply of ammunition. It led to failure in supplying accepted quantities, and there was shortfall in 54 to 73 per cent types of ammunition, the report said.