ONGC without a chairman as Subhash Kumar retires

New Delhi: India's most valuable public sector firm by market capitalisation ONGC on Saturday became a company with no chairman and managing director after incumbent Subhash Kumar superannuated and the government did not immediately name his replacement.

Kumar, who was Director-Finance of ONGC and has been since April last year holding the additional charge of chairman and managing director, superannuated on December 31, 2021, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) said in a stock exchange filing.

"Anurag Sharma, Director (Onshore) has been entrusted with an additional charge of the post of Director (Finance) with effect from January 1, 2022," the company said, citing a December 28, 2021, order of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to this effect.

But, it did not say anything about who gets charge of the chairman and managing director. As per practice, the government appoints a replacement of a director or chairman on any public sector board at least a couple of months before his retirement.

However, in the case of ONGC, the same practice wasn't followed. So, its last full-time head Shashi Shanker retired on March 31, 2021, with his replacement not even been selected.

Kumar, who was the senior-most director on the board, was given the additional charge.

But this time around, no one has been given a charge, sources aware of the development said.