New Delhi: The Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) didn't recommend any candidate for the position of the next Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), the public sector head-hunter has said on Friday. "Keeping in view the strategic importance and vision for the company and its future, the board did not recommend any candidate and decided to constitute a search committee in the PESB," said the PESB in a notification posted on its website.
A total of nine candidates were interviewed on Friday for the position of ONGC's CMD post. Those on the short-list from within ONGC included Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) Director (Finance) Pomila Jaspal, Director (T&FS) Om Prakash Singh, Executive Director (ED) Sandeep Gupta, ED Pankaj Kumar, and ED Omkar Nath Gyani. CONCOR's Director (Finance) Manoj Kumar Dubey was also in the fray. In addition, there were two 1994-batch IAS officers — Avinash Joshi and Niraj Verma.
ONGC has been functioning without a full-time CMD since former CMD Shashi Shanker retired on March 31 upon superannuation. After Shanker's superannuation, ONGC Director (Finance) Subhash Kumar was given additional charge of the ONGC CMD post.
The PESB will now constitute a search committee to find more candidates for the ONGC CMD post. According to para 7.1 of the resolution no. 27(210 – EOJ86 (CC)) dated March 3, 1987, "The PESB shall not be a mere Interview Board. It shall also constitute itself into a Search Committee to look out for and identify suitable persons who can be appointed to Level-1 and Lovel-II posts in Public Sector Enterprises."
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