Khurshid awaits cabinet secy's nod to bring DPE under MCA

Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today said bringing the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) under the administrative control of his ministry hinges upon the approval of the Cabinet Secretary.
       
"When the government would be able to reorganise it... I am not sure. It is already pending with the Cabinet Secretary," Khurshid said when asked about the plans of shifting the DPE, now under the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.
 
"It provides for more rational handling because many of the areas, as far as the DPE is concerned, are areas that pertain to what we are doing for the private sector," Khurshid said on the sidelines of a function organised by the Standing Conference of Public Enterprises, the apex body of CPSUs.
      
The DPE is the nodal agency for central public enterprises.
 
In January this year, Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had mooted the idea of bringing the DPE under the administrative control of the MCA.
 
Deshmukh had also said that he would write to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in this regard.
 
Though DPE is responsible for 246 CPSEs, including BHEL, ONGC, SAIL, NTPC and PFC, they also remain under the administrative control of their respective ministries.

Further, Khurshid said that the proposed National Procurement Policy will provide for a clearer way to function for public procurement.
    
"Procurement is a very important part of our nation. And procurement, as indeed those who procure have to have a special focus it is good to know what is the legitimate way to function," he said.
    
"It's in Commerce Ministry, they are working on procurement law. There will be a law that will help people, particularly in the public sector... (they) should be able to follow procedures that are up-to-date and state-of-the art," Khurshid added.