Timeline issued to fill up CPSE board posts

ITo ensure timely board-level appointments in Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs), the government has issued a detailed timeline on the process of such approvals.

Expressing concern over the delay in filling up board-level vacancies in CPSEs, a directive from the department of personnel & training has asked all ministries to adhere to the prescribed timeline.

The Public Enterprises Selection Board has been told to initiate the process for filling up board-level vacancies at least a year prior to the date of vacancy.

The ministry concerned must inform PESB about the vacancies on time, the order says. PESB, on its part, has to complete the selection process and send its recommendations to the ministry at least six months before a post falls vacant.

In the next step, the ministry will have to forward the PESB recommendation with vigilance profile of the selected individuals to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). This has to be done within 10 days from the receipt of PESB recommendation. CVC will have two months to complete the vigilance clearance process and send to the ministry concerned. All the consultations with Central Bureau of Investigation and other agencies must be concluded within these two months.

Within 10 days of the CVC nod, the ministry concerned will have to forward the proposal to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) Secretariat, the DoPT directive says. The ACC will take a decision on the proposal within the next six weeks.

To facilitate monitoring of proposals at every stage, all ministries/departments have been told to upload and update the data on real time basis.

In cases where vigilance clearance is not received, cognizance should be taken of any complaint received only within six months prior to the initiation of the selection process, and not before that. Any complaint made prior to six months of the start of the selection process will not have any bearing on the appointment process. But such complaints have to be dealt with separately and necessary action must be taken in case of adverse conclusion even after the appointment is made.

It was recently reported that around two dozen executives on the boards of public sector companies are working on extension without formal letters from the government, raising issues of corporate governance since many of these are top listed companies. Power and petroleum companies have been among the most affected because of delay in appointments.