The Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) has recommended M K Goel be appointed chairman and managing director (CMD) of Power Finance Corporation (PFC), the state-owned lender to power projects. Currently, Goel is director (commercial) at the public sector undertaking; he has been holding the additional charge of CMD for the past three months.
Now, PESB’s recommendation will be reviewed by the prime minister-headed Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC). The board operates under the Department of Personnel and Training and oversees hiring for state-owned firms.
As many as 15 candidates had applied for the post, advertised on October 11 this year. These included eight internal candidates. On Monday, the board interviewed nine candidates, including I J Kapoor, director (commercial), NTPC; I S Jha, director (projects), Power Grid Corporation; P A Rani, director (finance), Container Corporation of India; and Yaduvendra Mathur, chairman and managing director, Rajasthan Financial Corporation.
Other candidates included R N Misra, director (civil), Satluj Jal Vidyut; R Nagarajan, director (finance) and A K Agarwal, director (projects) at PFC; and D Ravi, executive director, PFC.
The Rs 17,273-crore PFC has been functioning without a fulltime chairman since 13 September, when Satnam Singh was asked to hand over charge of the post. Singh’s five-year tenure had ended on July 31. While the government had allowed him to continue “till further orders”, ACC had examined a proposal for his extension. However, on September 13, an order was served on him to hand over charge, despite the fact that his retirement was due only in July 2018. A vigilance inquiry was initiated against him.
Goel, a trained electrical engineer, has about 33 years of experience in the power sector. During his 25 years at PFC, he has handled the implementation of the power ministry’s flagship schemes, including the restructured-accelerated power development and reform programme and ultra mega power projects.
PFC has a loan book of about Rs 1,60,000 crore. Last financial year, the company sanctioned Rs 75,147 crore and disbursed Rs 45,151 crore.
