Several top PSUs remain headless

NEW DELHI, July 15: In a violation of Government rules, about 39 top PSU posts lie vacant even though more than three months have elapsed s...

NEW DELHI, July 15: In a violation of Government rules, about 39 top PSU posts lie vacant even though more than three months have elapsed since the final reccomendations were made by the Public Enterprises Selection Board PESB. In some cases almost three years have elapsed since the reccomendation was made to the administrative ministry. Of the 59 cases on which the PESB reccomendation had been sent to the ministries as on June 30, about 39 are more than three months old. This includes about 12 chairmen amp; managing directors and about 27 directors. This delay of more than three months violates a Government decision taken in May this year which said that the administrative ministry had to process the reccomendations of the PESB and send it to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet ACC for a final decision within 60 days.

If the administrative ministry did not send the reccomendation to the ACC within this period, then the Establishment Officer in the Home Ministry will be empowered to bypass the administrative ministry and send the reccomendation directly to the ACC. This decision was taken to ensure that the appointment of the CMD or a director of a PSU was done without delay. But despite the powers of the EO to go directly to the ACC, the posts lie vacant. Among other, the PESB has written to the Cabinet Secretariat and the Finance Ministry a few days ago to apprise them of the situation.

Senior officials say that often the policy adopted by the administrative ministries is denial by delay.8217; If the ministries find that the candidate selected by the PESB does not suit them, they sit on the reccomendation and do not forward it to the ACC. Often they also question the qualifications of the candidates by raking up frivolous vigilance cases. In fact, to prevent such events, the Government had asked the Central Vigilance Commission to accept only those complaints against a candidate which had been filed till six months prior to the initiation of the selection procedure. The PSUs which are without chief include Powergrid Corporation.