PESB recommends no one for IOC top job

New Delhi: Government headhunter PESB on Tuesday did not make any recommendation for the next chairman of India’s largest oil company, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), after interviewing 10 candidates including Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd (CPCL) managing director Arvind Kumar.

Kumar and nine others appeared for an interview before Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) on Tuesday.

After the interview, PESB in an order said, “The Board did not recommend any candidate and advised the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to take an appropriate course of further action including search-cum-selection committee or as deemed appropriate for the selection with the approval of the competent authority.”

This is the second instance in recent months where PESB did not find a suitable candidate for the top job at blue chip oil companies. On June 3, 2021, it did not find anyone suitable from nine candidates, including two serving IAS officers, to head ONGC. The ministry thereafter constituted a search-cum-selection panel and named Arun Kumar Singh, who had retired after attaining 60 years of age from Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), to head ONGC. Singh wasn’t eligible to apply in the first place but the changed rules made him eligible.

PESB on Tuesday interviewed 10 candidates to replace incumbent chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya who superannuates on attaining 60 years of age on August 31 this year. Those interviewed include five executive directors of IOC, Container Corporation of India Ltd (Concor) director (finance) Manoj Kumar Dubey and NMDC Ltd director (finance) Amitava Mukherjee. Two Indian Railway Services officers -- Yatendra Kumar and Ranjan Prakash Thakur -- were also interviewed, the PESB order showed.