PESB decides to pick ONGC chief through search panel

NEW DELHI: Government head-hunter PESB on Friday rejected all nine applicants, including two serving IAS officers, interviewed for the post of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation CMD and decided to pick a suitable candidate to lead India’s biggest oil and gas producer through a search committee.


PESB, however, recommended the company’s executive director Pankaj Kumar as the next director (offshore) in a separate set of interviews for the post. Kumar is currently heading ONGC’s Ahmedabad asset and will fill the vacancy created following

Rajesh Kakkar

’s retirement.

The rejection of CMD candidates is reminiscent of August 2006 when PESB had recommended R S Sharma, then director (finance) in the company, as the next chairman. In February 2007 the Prime Minister's Office rejected the recommendation and wanted the selection process widened by inviting candidates from the private sector. In June 2007, PESB again selected Sharma and the recommendation was accepted by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet.

The CMD’s post fell vacant after Shashi Shanker retired in April. Director (finance) Subhash Kumar is holding additional charge as CMD and will retire in December. Shanker’s and Kakkar’s successors could not be named six months before their retirement, which is the norm, because PESB was headless for seven months.

Avinash Joshi and Niraj Verma were the two Assam-Meghalaya cadre IAS officers, both of the 1994 batch, among those interviewed for the CMD’s post on Friday. Pomila Jaspal, who is director-finance at the company’s refining subsidiary MRPL and current director (technology and field services)

Om Prakash Singh

were among the internal candidates to be interviewed.