NEW DELHI: Government chief PESB has rejected all the candidates interviewed for the top job at Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), the third instance in as many years when the board has rejected someone for a role at a state oil company. Suitable candidate has not been found. ,
The Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) on June 14 interviewed eight candidates, including a director on the HPCL board and the managing director of Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL), but rejected all of them.
"The Board did not recommend any candidate for the post of Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of HPCL and directed the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to decide the appropriate course of further action for selection including the Search-cum-Selection Committee (SCSC). ) or as deemed appropriate with the approval of the competent authority,” the PESB panel said in a notification. The post of HPCL CMD will fall vacant on September 1, 2024, when incumbent Pushp Kumar Joshi attains the superannuation age of 60 years. Will retire when done.PESB had earlier not found any suitable person for the top post in Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). This resulted in an incumbent in IOC getting an extra year in office even after attaining retirement age and a retired executive being given charge in ONGC.
PESB on June 3, 2021 interviewed nine candidates, including two serving IAS officers, to head ONGC, India's largest oil and gas producer. But neither senior bureaucrats Avinash Joshi and Neeraj Verma nor Pomila Jaspal, director-finance of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) and Om Prakash Singh, director of technology and field services of ONGC, were found suitable. Following this, the ministry issued a Formed a search-cum-selection panel and nominated Arun Kumar Singh, who retired from Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) after attaining the age of 60 years, as the head of ONGC.Singh was not eligible to apply in the first place, but the eligibility rule was changed to allow consideration of persons who had attained the age of 60 years. He was given a three-year term which will end in December 2025.
In the case of the IOC, the PESB in May last year had not made any recommendation for the replacement of Srikant Madhav Vaidya, who was scheduled to retire after attaining the age of 60 in August 2023. The panel interviewed 10 candidates including Chennai Petroleum Corporation. Ltd. (CPCL) Managing Director Arvind Kumar.After this a rare step was taken. Vaidya, who took over as chairman of India's largest oil company on July 1, 2020, was given "re-employment on contract basis" for one year from the date of his superannuation, which is September 1. , was effective from August 2023. 31, 2024", according to an official order dated August 4, 2023. This month, the Oil Ministry invited applications for the new Chairman of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). The selection will be a three-member search-cum-selection headed by the PESB Chairman. This will be done by the committee and it includes Oil Secretary and former HPCL Chairman MK Surana as a member.Applications have been invited till July 3 from engineers, chartered accountants and cost accountants holding postgraduate management degrees from leading institutions and having at least five years of experience in leadership roles. The age eligibility cut-off for Internal has been set at not more than 58 years. As per the advertisement, the retirement age is 57 years for candidates and 60 years for outsiders.
The ministry had initially proposed to allow any person who has not attained the age of 61 years to be considered for the job. This made Vaidya eligible for this job.However, this proposal did not receive the support of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). Subsequently, the government reverted to the old system of appointing heads of PSUs with a retirement age of 60 years and invited applications.
Before Vaidya, no Maharatna PSU chairman had been given an extension of more than 60 years in recent years. In fact, the government had last year refused to grant an eight-month extension to Ranjan Kumar Mohapatra as IOC Director (Human Resources) till his superannuation age.
The existing rules of recruitment to Board level posts in PSUs permit consideration of the candidature of an internal person with at least two years of service remaining before superannuation and three years of service in case of external candidates.PESB, in its June 14 notification, said it interviewed HPCL refinery director Shunmugavel Bharatan and four executive directors of the company, Anuj Kumar Jain, Subodh Batra, K Vinod and Sandeep Maheshwari. It also interviewed IOC, an executive director of GAIL and Kamal Kishore Chatiwal, managing director of IGL.
The board said it did not find anyone suitable for the top post of HPCL.
The Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) on June 14 interviewed eight candidates, including a director on the HPCL board and the managing director of Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL), but rejected all of them.
"The Board did not recommend any candidate for the post of Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of HPCL and directed the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to decide the appropriate course of further action for selection including the Search-cum-Selection Committee (SCSC). ) or as deemed appropriate with the approval of the competent authority,” the PESB panel said in a notification. The post of HPCL CMD will fall vacant on September 1, 2024, when incumbent Pushp Kumar Joshi attains the superannuation age of 60 years. Will retire when done.PESB had earlier not found any suitable person for the top post in Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). This resulted in an incumbent in IOC getting an extra year in office even after attaining retirement age and a retired executive being given charge in ONGC.
PESB on June 3, 2021 interviewed nine candidates, including two serving IAS officers, to head ONGC, India's largest oil and gas producer. But neither senior bureaucrats Avinash Joshi and Neeraj Verma nor Pomila Jaspal, director-finance of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) and Om Prakash Singh, director of technology and field services of ONGC, were found suitable. Following this, the ministry issued a Formed a search-cum-selection panel and nominated Arun Kumar Singh, who retired from Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) after attaining the age of 60 years, as the head of ONGC.Singh was not eligible to apply in the first place, but the eligibility rule was changed to allow consideration of persons who had attained the age of 60 years. He was given a three-year term which will end in December 2025.
In the case of the IOC, the PESB in May last year had not made any recommendation for the replacement of Srikant Madhav Vaidya, who was scheduled to retire after attaining the age of 60 in August 2023. The panel interviewed 10 candidates including Chennai Petroleum Corporation. Ltd. (CPCL) Managing Director Arvind Kumar.After this a rare step was taken. Vaidya, who took over as chairman of India's largest oil company on July 1, 2020, was given "re-employment on contract basis" for one year from the date of his superannuation, which is September 1. , was effective from August 2023. 31, 2024", according to an official order dated August 4, 2023. This month, the Oil Ministry invited applications for the new Chairman of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). The selection will be a three-member search-cum-selection headed by the PESB Chairman. This will be done by the committee and it includes Oil Secretary and former HPCL Chairman MK Surana as a member.Applications have been invited till July 3 from engineers, chartered accountants and cost accountants holding postgraduate management degrees from leading institutions and having at least five years of experience in leadership roles. The age eligibility cut-off for Internal has been set at not more than 58 years. As per the advertisement, the retirement age is 57 years for candidates and 60 years for outsiders.
The ministry had initially proposed to allow any person who has not attained the age of 61 years to be considered for the job. This made Vaidya eligible for this job.However, this proposal did not receive the support of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). Subsequently, the government reverted to the old system of appointing heads of PSUs with a retirement age of 60 years and invited applications.
Before Vaidya, no Maharatna PSU chairman had been given an extension of more than 60 years in recent years. In fact, the government had last year refused to grant an eight-month extension to Ranjan Kumar Mohapatra as IOC Director (Human Resources) till his superannuation age.
The existing rules of recruitment to Board level posts in PSUs permit consideration of the candidature of an internal person with at least two years of service remaining before superannuation and three years of service in case of external candidates.PESB, in its June 14 notification, said it interviewed HPCL refinery director Shunmugavel Bharatan and four executive directors of the company, Anuj Kumar Jain, Subodh Batra, K Vinod and Sandeep Maheshwari. It also interviewed IOC, an executive director of GAIL and Kamal Kishore Chatiwal, managing director of IGL.
The board said it did not find anyone suitable for the top post of HPCL.
