It was successful in finally executing the long overdue plan after making necessary amendments to the recently launched Public Enterprises Management Board (Formation and Operations) Order, which envisages formation of a semi-autonomous umbrella body to regulate and oversee management of all state-owned enterprises.[break]
As per the amendment, the government can now dismiss chiefs and board members of PEs immediately after the PE Management Board starts functioning. This condition, however, will not apply to those who had entered into open competition to land the jobs.
Presently, most of the chiefs of PEs and board members are appointed on the basis of their political connection and not on merit. As a result, most of the top positions of the PEs are filled with unqualified people, who lack skills to steer the firms properly. This is one of the reasons why most of the state-owned enterprises are generating losses despite receiving billions of rupees of taxpayers´ money from the government.
“We hope the amendments we just made will end the practice of appointing people lacking leadership skills and business acumen to the top posts and improve financial health of the loss-making units,” Khum Raj Punjali, joint secretary of the Ministry of Finance (MoF), told Republica.
In this regard, the MoF has already asked Public Service Commission (PSC) to appoint someone to head a committee, which will play a lead role in selecting chief executives of PEs.
This six-member committee, which will be headed by the PSC chief or someone appointed by him, will be tasked with interviewing candidates for the chief´s post at PEs and forwarding names of three best candidates to the government for final approval.
But there is a caveat. The committee, which comprises mostly government officials, still lacks one member -- the chief executive of the PE Management Board, who is yet to be appointed.
“Without his appointment, the committee cannot initiate the task of appointing chief executives through open competition,” a high-ranking official of the MoF said.
This is same for selection of members of the boards of directors, as the chief of the Board heads the committee that initiates the process of selecting people to the posts.
“We hope the chief of the Board will be selected soon as a committee to select that person has already been formed under the chief of the Public Service Commission,” the official added.
Related story
‘People no longer trust handpicked candidates'
