The department of public enterprises (DPE) is planning to overhaul the existing selection procedure to make succession planning in central PSUs more transparent and predictable. The DPE is planing to lay down a policy that will ask government headhunter public enterprises selection board (PESB) to secure the central vigilance commission?s (CVC) clearance for shortlisted candidates before initiating the selection process. As of now, CVC approval is taken after the conclusion of the PSEB process.
What prompted the DPE move was the way the selection of a regular candidate for the top job in ONGC could not be finalised on time due to some bogus complaints, forcing the government to choose an acting chairman to run India?s most valuable public sector enterprise even though PSEB had concluded its search exercise in time. ONGC director (exploration) Sudhir Vasudeva, who emerged the first choice for the top job in the PESB exercise, could not take charge owing to a pending CVC inquiry into some anonymous complaints filed against him. But subsequently it turned out that the letters that the CVC had used as the basis for initiating the inquiry against Vasudeva were forged. That caused a major embarrassment for the government.
Learning from its bitter experience, the DPE is also planning to do away with the current practice of selecting two candidates for the same post. When contacted, DPE secretary Bhaskar Chatterjee declined to comment on the issue.
Meanwhile, Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE), a representative body of CPSUs, has urged the government to streamline procedure for the selection of PSU directors and chairmen so that the vacancies could be filled.
While India?s two biggest PSUs, ONGC and Indian Oil Corporation, are running headless, as many as 300 vacancies of part directors remain to be filled in PSUs. As a result, many listed PSUs are unable to comply with the Sebi?s listing norm on independent directors.