Under an updated defense offset policy, India’s Ministry of Defence is setting up a new agency, Defence Offset Monitoring Wing (DOMW) to track the $1.8 billion of activity in India expected by foreign suppliers to meet their obligation.
According to a report in the Business Standard, an Additional Secretary will head it, with a joint secretary and six full-time director-level officers under him or her. “We are becoming functional right away. Six temporary directors are arriving next week from defense PSUs and the Ordnance Factory Board. Eventually, civilian and military officers from all three services will staff these director-level positions.” One of the DOMW chief’s first actions will be to hire a private agency for physically auditing the implementation of offsets by foreign defense suppliers.
The DOMW is in addition to the previously created Defence Offsets Facilitation Agency (DOFA), headed by a joint secretary, whose duties appear to be to introduce suppliers to Indian offset partners.
According to the report, the new offset guidelines split responsibility for defense offsets between the MoD’s two main departments. The Acquisition Wing will evaluate offset proposals submitted by prospective vendors. It will also conclude offset contracts with vendors, alongside the main contract that creates those offset obligations. But post-contract monitoring and auditing of offsets will be the job of the Department of Defence Production (DDP), through the DOMW.
