ONGC, IOC get new heads

The government today named A K Hazarika as acting chairman of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and S V Narasimhan as interim head of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).

The interim appointments have been made as Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy is yet to approve files pertaining to the appointment of fulltime chairmen of the two companies.

Hazarika, currently Director (Onshore) and the seniormost director on ONGC, has been appointed acting Chairman and Managing Director of ONGC for three months with effect from February 1 or till a regular incumbent is appointed, whichever is earlier, government orders said.

He takes over from R S Sharma, who superannuated today.

Hazarika has also been given additional charge of Director (Exploration) upon superannuation of DK Pande today.

Similarly, Narasimhan, currently Director (Finance) and the seniormost on IOC board, will takeover from February 1, the order said. He replaces acting Chairman B M Bansal, who too superannuated today.

IOC has been without a permanent chairman since March 1, 2010 after government decided not to continue with Sarthak Behuria till his superannuation in 2012.

While Bansal, the senior most director on IOC board, was appointed acting chairman from March 1, government headhunters Public Enterprise Selection Board on September 29 interviewed potential candidates and selected R S Butola for the post.

Just a day before that PESB had selected R K Singh to head Bharat Petroleum, where the vacancy of Chairman and Manging Director arose when Ashok Sinha quit in August, 2010.

Sources said formalities of Singh's appointment including clearances by anti-corruption bodies and ratification of his candidature by the Cabinet Committee on Appointments were completed in two months and Singh took over on December 8.

But in case of IOC, the file movement started only in December-end, they said, adding the file seeking appointment of Butola had reached Cabinet Secretariat on January 19 when Reddy replaced Murli Deora at the Oil Ministry.

The file was sent back to Reddy for concurrence and is still lying on the new minister's desk, they said.

In case of ONGC, PESB had on October 19 selected Sudhir Vasudeva, Director (Offshore), ONGC, to replace Sharma. CVC while processing his file for clearance, sought certain clarification from the oil ministry and the same is lying with Reddy's office, sources said.

The problem is more severe at ONGC which is without a Director (Human Resources) since mid-July when Ashok Balyan moved jobs to Petronet LNG. PESB will interview potential candidates for the position on February 22, sources said, adding Director (Exploration) D K Pande too retired today and appointment of his replacement too is stuck with Reddy.