ONGC without a chairman as Subhash Kumar retires and no replacement appointed

India's most valuable public sector firm by market capitalisation ONGC on Saturday became a company with no chairman and managing director after incumbent Subhash Kumar superannuated and the government did not immediately name his replacement.

Kumar, who was Director-Finance of ONGC and has been since April last year holding the additional charge of chairman and managing director, superannuated on December 31, 2021, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) said in a stock exchange filing.

"Anurag Sharma, Director (Onshore) has been entrusted with an additional charge of the post of Director (Finance) with effect from January 1, 2022," the company said, citing a December 28, 2021, order of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to this effect.

But, it did not say anything about who gets charge of the chairman and managing director.

As per practice, the government appoints a replacement of a director or chairman on any public sector board at least a couple of months before his retirement.

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However, in the case of ONGC, the same practice wasn't followed. So, its last full-time head Shashi Shanker retired on March 31, 2021, with his replacement not even been selected. Kumar, who was the senior-most director on the board, was given the additional charge.

But this time around, no one has been given a charge, sources aware of the development said.

"Normally, the Cabinet Committee on Appointments (ACC) gives the additional charge of a retiring director (in case a full-time replacement isn't in place) at least two days prior to the retirement of the incumbent. But in ONGC's case, no communication was received till Saturday morning," a source said.

The administrative ministry head Hardeep Puri in the case of ONGC has the authority to give an ad-hoc charge for three months, but even this hasn't happened so far in the case of ONGC.

An email sent to the ministry's spokesperson for comments remained unanswered.

Alka Mittal, Director for Human Resources, is the senior-most director on the ONGC board and the additional charge should have in normal course gone to her unless the government wants to thrust a bureaucrat on the company, sources said.

Government head-hunter PESB on June 4, 2021, interviewed candidates to select a replacement for Shanker but did not find anyone suitable from nine candidates, including two serving IAS officers.

The Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) interviewed 9 out of the 10 candidates who had applied for the post of Chairman and Managing Director of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

"Keeping in view the strategic importance and vision for the company and its future, the Board did not recommend any candidate and decided to constitute a Search Committee," PESB had said in a notice after the interviews.

The Search Committee hasn't been so far constituted and so a full-time replacement is unlikely to be appointed anytime soon.

Once the panel is constituted, applications will be sought, which could take anywhere between one to two months. Thereafter interviews would be held and a candidate found suitable will be sent to the government for vetting and appointment.

The ACC will take a call on the appointment after getting clearance from the anti-corruption bodies like CVC and CBI, a process that takes at least 3-4 months.

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