Govt Bypassing Norms In Selection Of Psu Chiefs

The United Front government is rushing though with some important public sector appointments in its last days in office, bypassing established norms and procedures.

Though the appointment of PSU chairmen should have the approval of the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) and the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), the United Front government is trying to get the appointments cleared by the Prime Minister in at least in two cases, bypassing the committees.

One case is that of K G Ramanathan, chairman and managing director of Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (IPCL).

He was given an years extension after he attained the age of superannuation last year. Now with his extended tenure coming to an end, the government is trying to give him another years extension.

All this is being done without approval of PESB and ACC. The file concerning the extension has been reportedly sent by cabinet secretary T S R Subramanian directly to the Race Course residence of the Prime Minister. Even principal secretary to the Prime Minister, N N Vora, is learnt to have been bypassed in this case.

Similar efforts are being made to push the appointment of Central Electronics chairman D V Gupta as the chairman of the Airports Authority of India. The minister of state for civil aviation Jayanti Natrajan had rejected Guptas candidature stating that his track record was not convincing enough.

It is learnt that as in the case of Ramanathan, Guptas file has also been sent directly to the Prime Ministers residence for approval. The cabinet secretary did not send the file even to the home minister on the plea that the latter was on tour.

Gupta tops the second panel recommended by PESB for the post after the appointment of Anand Darbari, who was heading the first panel, was not cleared by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). Darbari has filed a case against CVC in the Delhi High Court and notices have been sent in this regard to the government and the CVC.

Officials are surprised over the extraordinary speed with which the two appointments are being pushed through, especially that of Gupta.

They are of the opinion that the appointments should have been left to the new government which should be in place by the middle of the next month