Accidents are complex phenomena, says Ordnance Factory Board after Indian Army report

New Delhi: Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) said on Wednesday that accidents are complex phenomena and can have multiple causes such as poor gun maintenance, faulty firing drill, un-validated design changes in the weapon, faulty ammunition design among others.

OFB statement was in response to an internal Indian Army report which said that  faulty ammunition supplied by Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) to the army in the last six years resulted in the death of 27 personnel and loss of Rs 960 crore.

OFB said on Wednesday that for the accidents that occurred in the period between January 2015 to December 2019, where defect investigation has been completed, only 19 per cent of the cases are attributable to OFB.

OFB claimed that out of the total number of accidents where defect investigation has been completed, only 2 per cent of the cases where casualties have been reported are attributable to the OFB. "In 98 per cent of the cases where there have been casualties, these are not attributable to OFB," it said.

"Of the 27 fatalities reported, 19 were in CAD Pulgaon in the incident that occurred in May, 2016 involving mine anti-tank (A/T) IA ND. This mine  had been developed by the DRDO (ARDE) and was manufactured strictly according to their design. Design deficiencies were subsequently noticed and suitable changes are being evaluated," said OFB.

The defect investigation is carried out by a committee headed by the Authority Holding Sealed Particulars (AHSP) which is the custodian of the manufacturing documents. The committees include representatives of all the stakeholders including the user. The investigations carried out by these committees are seldom holistic in nature despite the fact that OFB has been insisting on such an approach, said OFB in the statement.