Left turns Right to convert red into black

Kerala, trailing the country8217;s largest number of sick state Public Sector Undertakings, is shopping for private-sector CEOs to help get some of them out of the mess.

Kerala, trailing the country8217;s largest number of sick state Public Sector Undertakings PSUs, is shopping for private-sector CEOs to help get some of them out of the mess. The Public Sector Restructuring and Internal Audit Board RIAB of the Kerala government is advertising countrywide for the first batch of would-be CEOs to take over eight of these. These include several that could have been mercifully put to sleep, in less-Leftist climes See chart.

Industries minister and CPM heavyweight Elamaram Kareem is, however, unfazed by their records. 8220;Many of these went down into heavy losses because they were mismanaged for years. Once we hire proper management from the private sector to run them, these could be great companies. We will do that for more PSUs too, in phases,8217;8217; he said.

But would the Left government pay CEO recruits on par with the private sector? 8220;Why not? We have kept that open for negotiation,8217;8217; he added. His government, apparently, doesn8217;t want to clone the model of the central Public Enterprises Selection Board of the 1970s, headed by ex-Hindustan Lever chairman V.G. Rajadhyaksha and comprising air chief marshal P.C. Lal and a distinguished bureaucrat 8212; which had a near-complete say on picking up CEOs for central PSUs, and was famed for being politically insulated.

Instead, RIAB will hand over applications from would-be CEOs to an Executive Selection Board comprising the state industries secretary and secretary promotions, who will hire a management expert and a couple of subject experts ad hoc for each selection, to help with the screening. 8220;The board will shortlist candidates and the government will then choose and appoint them,8217;8217; Kareem said. In short, appointments can8217;t be made entirely apolitical. One big objective, the minister said, was also to get rid of civil servants from the top jobs in PSUs since they aren8217;t meant for that 8212; two of the advertised positions now have IAS manning in them.

But what if these CEOs and government sops 8212; loan waivers, one-time settlements, cross buying, price preferences 8212; fail to pull companies into shape? 8220;We really don8217;t know, we haven8217;t thought about it yet. But the bottomline is, even if we need to think of closing those that just can8217;t be saved, we won8217;t ever sell off their assets to the private sector,8217;8217; said Kareem.