In a move to allow a bureaucrat to head the state-run ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the government has permitted filling up of OVL managing director’s post on deputation so that the officer could go back to his service after a five-year stint. And to make the choosing process easier, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) also decided that the OVL managing director would be picked by a search-cum-selection committee rather than the government-designated Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB).
The ACC, on February 12, approved the “filling up of the post of OVL managing director on deputation basis in exemption from the ‘rule of immediate absorption’ through the search-cum-selection committee mode”. Sources said that Department of Public Enterprise (DPE) had earlier opposed the exemption citing December 2005 guidelines where deputation of government officers, including those from Defence Services, was not permitted in Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs).
These officers could join the posts in CPSEs only on “immediate absorption” basis meaning they would have to quit their service and join the state-run company on permanent basis. Deputation was permitted only as chief executive or regional/zonal heads in CPSEs which required continuous liaison and co-ordination with the state governments and where the expertise acquired in the state government was needed for organizational efficiency, it says.
