Oilmin keen on early selection of IOC chairman
New Delhi   20-Jul-2010

The government is keen on early interviews for the top job at IndianOil as it does not want the nation's largest oil firm to continue without a fulltime chairman for long. Official sources said the oil ministry wants the Public Enterprise Selection Board, the government's headhunter, to hold interviews for IOC top boss ahead of those to select chairman and managing director for Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). Applications for ONGC top boss closed on May 6 and those for IOC closed on June 18 and logically, interviews for ONGC should be conducted earlier. But the ministry wants PESB to hold interviews for IOC earlier than ONGC. It is reasoning the preponment to the fact that vacancy at ONGC will arise only on February 1 while there already is a vacancy at IOC. IOC has been running without a permanent chairman since March when the government did not extend the service of Sarthak Behuria as chairman. Behuria completed his five-year term on February 28 and was eligible to be extended as chairman till early 2012 when he superannuates but the government refused him the option.