No major improvement in ammo stocks in three years, says CAG

New Delhi, July 22
The Comptroller and Auditor General, in a damning report says there has been ‘no significant’ improvement in levels of reserve stock of ammunition of the Army in the past three years while the high-calibre ammunition used for superior firepower–artillery and armoured vehicles–remained ‘under critical levels’.
The CAG report tabled in both Houses of Parliament on Friday was prepared after an audit of ammunition management in Army carried out in January 2017. This was done to assess the implementation of CAG recommendations for improvement in the availability of ammunition and its efficient management. The audit covered four years’ period from April 2013 to September 2016.
The CAG said despite a lapse of more than three years (from March 2013) no significant improvement in availability of reserve stocks, known as war wastage reserve (WWR) ammunition in military parlance, was noticed in audit. Further, the stock levels of majority of high-calibre ammunition relating to Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV) and Artillery, meant for sustaining superior firepower, remained under critical level.
Despite serious concerns highlighted by Audit in Performance Audit report on ‘Ammunition management in Army’, no significant improvement took place in the critical deficiency in availability of ammunition and quality of ammunition supplied by the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) since March 2013.
Shortfall in meeting the production target by OFB continued. “Further, majority of the procurement cases from other than OFB which were initiated by Army HQ during 2009-13 were pending as of January 2017,” said the CAG.
Commenting on the ‘Minimum Acceptable Risk Level (MARL)’, a formula devised in 1999, the CAG said ammunition with the availability of less than ‘10-I’ (10-day intense war) is considered ‘critical’ and any further decrease in such ammunition should be an area of high concern.
As of March 2013, the number of types of ammunition available for less than 10-I was 85 against total 170 types of ammunition held. As on today, the stocks for 61 types of ammunition out of total 152 types of ammunition were still at critical level.
Though there appears a slight improvement in availability of WWR stock, scrutiny of category-wise details of ammunition revealed that the WWR level had increased mainly on account of increase in the stock of explosive and demolition items, the CAG noted.