PESB invites fresh applications for Oil India top post

Move follows rejection of previous six applications, including that of finance director

Government headhunters PESB has invited fresh applications for the top job at Oil India Ltd after it found none of previous six applicants, including the firm's Director (Finance) R S Borah, suitable.

The Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) sought applications from candidates with "good academic record" in the age group 45 years to 58 years by January 7.

Persons with Technical/MBA qualifications and having experience in management as well as knowledge of oil industry are desirable, it said in a notice.

Unlike Coal India Ltd, where PESB invited candidates from private sector, the headhunter in case of OIL has gone by the current hiring system from central PSUs and government officials.

PESB had last month interviewed six candidates including Borah, to select a new Chairman and Managing Director of the nation's second biggest state explorer.

After the interview, PESB in a notice said, "The Board decided to see more candidates."

PESB is looking for a successor of incumbent S K Srivastava, who retires on June 30, 2015.

OIL has five full-time board members, including the chairman and managing director. Besides Borah, 55, none of the other three were qualified to appear for the interview.

According to PESB rules, an internal candidate must have at least two years of service left on the date of falling of vacancy, to be eligible for being considered for a board level position. For external candidates, the requirement is of three years.

It is being speculated that ONGC Videsh Ltd Managing Director N K Verma may head OIL, but he may not be eligible as he took over as the chief of Oil and Natural Gas Corp's (ONGC) overseas arm only in August this year and PESB's job-hopping rule prohibit candidates from seeking within one year of appointment to a board.

ONGC Director (Technical) Shashi Shankar, 53, is eligible. Former Cairn India interim chief executive P Elango may be interested and so can be some bureaucrats, industry and government sources said.

Internally, OIL Director S Mahapatra retires on March 2017 but did not have two years of service left on the date of vacancy on May 31, 2015.

The other two Director (Operations) S Rath and Director (HR) N K Bharali too were not eligible as they did not have minimum two years of service left. While Bharali superannuates on January 31, 2015, Rath is to retire four months later.