Defence minister sets up advisory committee on capital projects

Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman has constituted a 13-member advisory committee to advise the ministry on capital projects, a move aimed at expediting capital acquisitions to bolster armed forces preparedness.

The `RakshaMantri's Advisory Committee on Ministry of Defence Capital Projects (RMCOMP), has been constituted with 13 members.

The committee will undertake independent review and status check of identified ongoing critical capital projects above Rs500 crore, including 'Mission Mode' projects, 'Make' projects, 'Buy (Indian), 'Buy (Indian – IDDM), 'Buy and Make' and 'Buy and Make (Indian)' projects as well as 'Design and Development' projects under the ministry.

It will assess the physical and financial progress of these schemes/projects, identify specific bottlenecks and concerns that are responsible for delays, wherever applicable and suggest the way forward. Any other issues related to project monitoring and appraisal that may be referred by MoD.

The committee will have tenure until the end of August 2018, unless otherwise ordered.

The committee has been asked to present an initial status report on the identified projects to defence ministry by 31 March 2018. The report will include apart from the current status of the projects, issues, remedial measures and follow-up strategy.

Based on the decisions on the status report, the committee will submit two follow-up corrective Action Taken Reports by 30 April 2018 and 31 July 2018, respectively.

The committee will suggest modern management concepts that can be leveraged to reduce delays and actionable measures to improve the capital acquisition process/procedures.

The chairman RMCOMP may co-opt up to two specialists/consultants as members, if considered necessary for value addition. The committee will also invite/visit heads of DPSUs/DRDO/OFB and senior officers of MoD/DDP/armed forces for interactions.

Vinay Sheel Oberoi (former secretary to government of India) has been appointed chairman of the committee.

The other members  include R K Tyagi (former chairman of HAL), Sanhita Kar (The Indian Defence Accounts Service (Retd) and former PCDA of factories accounts), R K Jain (former member of OFB), R Anand (special advisor E&Y LLP), Amber Dubey (partner head of aerospace and defence at KPMG), M H Rehman (former DG (TM & HR) of DRDO), Rear Admiral Sudhir Pillai (Retd former FONA), Maj Gen RKSaiwal (Retd former ADG (C&A)/MGO branch), AVM G Raveendranath (Retd former TM (Air) ACIDS (PP&FS), HQ IDS), Representative of DDP (JS Rank or above) Brig/Col equivalent from HQ IDS will be member secretary.