Ministry delays appointment of senior BEML official

NEW DELHI, February 21: In yet another case of political interference in appointment of senior PSU executives, the Defence Ministry has not ...

NEW DELHI, February 21: In yet another case of political interference in appointment of senior PSU executives, the Defence Ministry has not cleared the appointment of director personnel of Bangalore-based Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML). The candidates for the post were selected by the Public Enterprises Selection Board in June 1997. But almost eight months later Defence Ministry has not cleared the appointments.

Sources say that the the main reason for the delay appears to be the fact that the person who was considered the best candidate for the post by PESB did not suit the people running the ministry. The Ministry prefers Natarajan to Siddiqui. But since PESB has placed Siddiqui over Natarajan, the Ministry doesn’t know how to appoint Natarajan without inviting charges of favouritism.

It is learnt that the late Minister of State for Defence N V N Somu and Cabinet Minister for Defence Mulayam Singh Yadav were in favour of Natarajan. But they could not go through with the appointment because ofopposition from bureaucrats within the ministry. As a result a stalemate persists.

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In the interview held on June 4 last, the PESB had placed M A M Siddiqui, the general manager(HRD) of HMT and V R Natarajan, general manager ECIL as number one and two on the list of selected candidates. The list was forwarded to the Ministry for clearance.

But since then, the file has been awaiting clearance from Yadav. But while eight months have passed, no decision has been taken. BEML is a Rs 1169 crore company which makes earth moving machinery, rail coaches, defence equipment and specialist trucks. It employs over 15,540 people.

Siddiqui is believed to have written to the Prime Ministers Office asking for its intervention to expedite the appointment. As long Siddiqui is on the panel of short-listed candidates, he cannot appear for any other interview for which is eligible. He has already missed the interviews of director personnel in three other PSUs. One is his own company HMT and the others are NTPC andNALCO.

This comes in the wake of PSU reforms undertaken by the Government. To cut the delay in appointments of senior PSU executives, the Government had decided to put a time limit on decision by administrative ministries.

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The Government had said that a ministry should make up its mind within 60 days of the shortlist reaching it. But few ministers are taking this seriously.