Ignoring the candidate selected by the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) after due diligence for the post of BHEL chairman, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has given incumbent BP Rao a two-year extension.
The PMO move, observers said, could undermine the laid-down procedures for PSU appointments and bucks the trend of PSU chiefs not getting extensions.
The PESB had earlier chosen Prakash Chand, executive-director at the Haridwarunit of the power equipment major, to succeed Rao after the expiry of the latter’s tenure in December.
But sources said PMO decided against appointing Chand to the post on the ground that he lacked director-level experience, an asset which, according to the PMO, would be required to deal with the sluggish market conditions.
The decision to grant extension to Rao was on the basis of recommendation made by a panel of secretaries set up by the PMO. The PESB comes under the administrative control of the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions, which is headed by prime minister Manmohan Singh.
According to sources, IOC chairman RS Butola’s term is coming to an end in May and the candidate selected by the PESB, B Ashok, again lacks director-level exposure just as was the case with Chand. It remains to be seen if the PMO would grant Butola an extension.
The PMO move on BHEL is departure from the recent trend of no PSU chief getting an extension. Even high-fliers like Subir Raha and Sarthak Behuria were denied extension after their tenures ended as ONGC and IOC chiefs, respectively.
IOC’s case apart, there is possibility that other PSU chiefs on the verge of retirement might also make pitch for extension, citing similar reasons. So the PMO may have opened Pandora’s box in approving extension to BHEL chief.
Determined to expedite utilisation of over 1.5 lakh crore of cash reserves lying with the central public sector to ensure early economic revival , the government decided to adopt out-of-the-box measures like extending tenure of seasoned talents at the helm of leading PSUs and increasing weightage for timely project implementation in annual performance appraisal matrix.
NTPC chairman Arup Roy Choudhury, who has also held the top post of Standing Conference of Public Sector Enterprises ( Scope) in the past, welcomed the government’s move to extend tenure of incumbent BHEL chief.
?It (extension granted to Rao beyond normal term) is a good move,? Choudhury, said. he also suggested giving a 62-year term to chiefs of economically crucial PSUs on par with with select secretaries.