PSUs back out of CWG commitments
New Delhi   20-Aug-2010

Government-owned oil and gas companies, the most favoured milch cows for funding public events, have decided to refrain from sponsoring the Common wealth Games despite incentives given by the Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprise to public sector units to use CSR funds and earn performance-related pay (PRP).

The heads of Oil & Natural Gas Corp, Oil India Ltd, GAIL India Ltd, Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) confirmed that they have no plans to sponsor the games while sources said IndianOil which was considering joining Indian Railways as one of two leading sponsors has developed cold feet.

Though IOC's acting chairman, BM Bansal had assured CWG Organising Committee (OC) chairman Suresh Kalmadi last month that it would sponsor the Games, no further steps were taken in light of the controversies that erupted over its functioning, they said.

Following allegations of Financial irregularities against the OC, energy siblings National Thermal Power Corp and Power grid of India have pulled out their sponsorship- pledged at Rs 60 crore, The NTPC, which gave Rs 20 crore in February out its committed Rs 50 crore, is seeking an audit.

Bharat Heavy Electriacals Ltd, under the administrative control of the Ministry of Heavy Industries, has no plans either to use the money under its corporate social responsibility account to achieve its MoU targets.

The Department of Public Enterprises under the ministry wrote to all PSEs in June that "all contributions/donations/promotions/sponsorships to the CWG 2010 will be treated as a CSR activity and count towards the award of marks in the MoU evaluation process".

Only with CSR activity can a PSE achieve an 'excellent' MoU rating and become eligible to get PRP at 100 percent. Ratings of 'very good' and 'good/fair' would bring down eligibility levels to 60 percent and 40 percent respectively.

PRP is a form of incentive pay used in companies, where employee performance cannot be measured in terms of output produced or sales achieved.