Centre constitutes empowered group for OFB corporatisation

New Delhi, Sep 11 (IANS) The Union government constituted an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on Friday to oversee the corporatisation of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB).

Headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, it 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 as members.

The empowered group will guide the entire corporatisation process, including transition, support and redeployment plans vis-a-vis board employees while safeguarding their salaries/wages and retirement benefits. Matters related to various categories of employees, including pensions of existing staff, would also be looked into by the EGoM.

The group will take a decision on conversion of the OFB into a single Defence Public Sector Undertaking (DPSU) or multiple DPSUs.

It will also decide on the financial support that may be provided to such an entity or entities to make them economically viable and self-reliant.

The group will look into the orders getting executed by the OFB, or for which facilities have been created in the OFB. Also, it will look into the issue of land assets of the OFB.

“The composition of EGoM along with terms of reference have been communicated to the OFB and various federations, unions and associations at board/factory/unit levels and they have been requested to place all their suggestions, issues, and concerns relating to corporatisation of OFB before the EGoM,” the Defence Ministry said.

The department has selected KPMG Advisory Services Pvt Ltd (Lead Consortium Member) with Khaitan and Co Ltd as another consortium member, as the consultancy agency for providing strategic and implementation management consultancy services to assist the Department of Defence Production in the corporatisation process.

–IANS

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