ACC rebuke over PSU board selection rules
Besides the IndianOil chairman selection, other board-level selections might be hit by a cabinet appointments committee (ACC) letter to all ministries, including the oil ministry and the PESB.
On September 17 (2024), the ACC issued a stern warning about adhering to its rules. ACC is the apex vetting authority for all board-level appointments and is part of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
Copied to the PMO, the September 17 (2024) letter refers to an earlier letter it sent on August 17 (2005), saying that only it had the authority to relax any age or educational qualification eligibility criteria. "It has been observed that the instructions dated February 12 (2015) and August 17 (2005) are not being adhered to by the ministry/departments and the PESB while undertaking the selection procedure," says ACC director Pallavi Singh.
Three days before the ACC letter, ONGC appointed Arunangshu Sarkar as its strategy and corporate affairs director on September 14 (2024). Will the ACC letter impact Sarkar's appointment? ACC rules allow candidates from state-controlled or private companies to be at most one level below the board level in the company hierarchy.
However, the ACC's letter stresses: "In some cases, the advertisement prescribed that applicants should be working at least a post of two levels immediately below the board level." A source stresses this violation of the ACC rules happened in the oil ministry's advertisement dated January 4 (2024) for the ONGC director strategy and corporate affairs post, which said applicants from "state public sector enterprises/private sector should be working at board level position or at least a post of two levels immediately below the board level on the date of application."
Our source claims similar rule violations took place in the advertisements for director finance at IndianOil and OPaL (ONGC Petro additions). The ACC letter adds that in some cases, the educational qualification of chartered accountant/cost accountant/MBA was made mandatory for officers who the ACC had exempted.
"The SCSC (Search and Selection Committee) or ministry/department or PESB are not competent to relax such eligibility criteria in a job description and should obtain prior ACC approval before an advertisement," writes the ACC. "The powers rested with the ACC should not be exercised by the ministries/departments/SCSC without prior ACC approval."