Telecom minister A Raja once again seems to be defying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. While the earlier defiance was with regard to allocation of new telecom licences, this time it is over restructuring the floundering state-owned BSNL.
With less than a month left for current chairman and managing director of BSNL Kuldeep Goyal to retire, it is still not clear whether the new measures suggested by the special committee set up by the PM would be adopted while choosing the successor.
The Prime Minister had constituted a committee headed by Sam Pitroda in January this year to look into the company?s financials and operations and suggest ways to revive its profitability.
BSNL logged Rs 36,000-crore revenues in 2008-09, while net profit shrank 81% to a dismal Rs 575 crore. The company is all set to post losses in the current financial year.
The Pitroda committee had suggested a string of recommendations and had explicitly recommended that the post of the chairman and managing director be split into two, with an eminent industry personality as its chairman, while the MD & CEO runs the day-to-day operations. The idea behind the proposal was that the chairman could act as a visionary who is not susceptible to political pressures and guides the board on sound commercial lines.
However, the Pitroda committee recommendations which were submitted in February have still not been ratified by the Department of Telecommunications. The standard procedure requires that the Telecom Commission takes a view on the committee recommendations before making a decision. However, according to sources, the file is still lying with Raja, who is dilly-dallying in the matter.
Though the Cabinet has constituted a search committee to look for a new CMD, it has still not taken a view whether the selection would be made according to a new criterion or if the standard norm would apply. Sources said that several candidates were interviewed on June 8, but no clarity has emerged.
If the telecom minister were serious about adopting the Pitroda panel recommendation, DoT would have intimated the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) so that search and interviews are done accordingly.
Selection of a new head for BSNL would be a litmus test to check whether the recommendations of the Pitroda committee would be implemented ? adoption of this recommendation will ensure that there is no political influence over the company?s operations and business processes.