NMDC joins the ranks of headless PSUs

As the year came to close, another leading state-owned firm NMDC became headless, joining the list of PSUs such as Coal India, MMTC and NHPC, mainly on account of tardy selection process and bureaucratic hurdles.

Nearly a dozen central public sector entities do not have a full time Chairman and Managing Director and in some cases, the post has been vacant for up to a year or more.

For instance, MMTC is without a CMD since October 1, 2010 while NHPC's top post is vacant since January 1, 2011. Similarly CIL, Nalco, SJVNL, National Fertilisers, Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Ltd (FACT) have been without the top official at the helm of affairs since March 2011.

Hindustan Aeronautics, MECON, MECL are some other PSUs, which are without a full time CMD.

"Such a scenario is hurting business activities, since acting executives are devoid of powers to take crucial decisions," Chairman of a top PSU said on the conditions of anonymity, adding that "on many occasions, acting CMDs get challenged by the other Board members due to rivalry".

In the case of NMDC, its chairman Rana Som retired yesterday (on December 31). However, Cabinet Committee on Appointments is yet to approve the name of Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) candidate, who was picked almost six months back, said a source.

In most of the cases, either PESB acted late or vigilance clearance has not been received or the parent ministry did not favour the PESB choice and the selected panel had to be scrapped, sources added.

For example, appointment of full time MMTC chairman has been dragging on since October, 2009 due to the about-turn taken by the Commerce Ministry on the selection process, as it now wants to appoint an Additional Secretary level officer from the central services for the top job.

Another glowing example is of appointment of a full time chairman for aluminium PSU Nalco, whose last CMD is under suspension over graft charges since February 26, 2011. The selection process for Nalco Chairman by Mines Ministry is yet to begin, even though tenure of its acting CMD as Board member will end in February 2012, sources pointed out.

Citing the example of NHPC and Coal India, they said that the delay is often from the PESB side, which has been entrusted the job to find a suitable candidate for the PSUs.

PESB's recommendation for NHPC CMD's post came only after 9 months (in September, 2011) of the retirement of the last full time CMD.

Another peculiar example is of Coal India, which is without a full time chairman since March 2011. In this case, the top two contenders selected by PESB did not get vigilance clearance and the panel was scrapped.

However, only last month (December) though, PESB initiated the process for appointing CIL's full time chairman, as the present acting chairman is superannuating this month.