Bringing into the open his battle against bureaucrats, ONGC CMD Subir Raha today rejected the authority of babus to control governance of public sector undertakings.‘‘A public sector company is ‘owned’, in entirety or in majority, by the people and not by an individual in a given office for a given tenure,’’ Raha said at the ONGC AGM.‘‘The fiduciary responsibility of a member of the board of the company is not waived if the company is in the public sector, and this is the Law of the Land. Administrative instructions cannot override the law,’’ he said.Raha revived the controversy, even after it had been set to rest by Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, raising the issue of freedom for PSUs from government fancies.‘‘Your company is engaged, unwaveringly, in the business of creation of wealth. All business involves risk, except when protected by the State. If the State refuses or withdraws protection, the choice is either to dissolve the company and carry out the purpose through a department, or let the company run as an enterprise.’’Raha today said at the company’s annual general meeting that while government directors watched, that ‘‘Companies are not departments. Companies, by definition, are governed by the Companies Act, departments are administered under executive rules and procedures. A listed company, even in the public sector, remains a listed company, not a department.’’
