SCOPE, the apex body on public enterprises affairs, has prescribed extending to the private sector two major laws, which if implemented, will add grist to the ongoing fiscal cleansing or anti-corruption drive, as it sees.
The Standing Conference on Public Enterprises that covers the 249 Central Government-owned companies wants to bring the private sector under the RTI Act (Right to Information Act or the transparency law) and also apply to it the two per cent spend from profits on public good or corporate social responsibility.
Currently, two per cent of 178 PSUs' net profits worth around Rs 1 lakh crore compulsorily goes into CSR each year. (Of the 249 PSUs, 31 are chronically sick and 30 are being wound up.)
Transparency
Dr U.D. Choubey, Director General of the Standing Conference on Public Enterprises, said extending the RTI Act to the private sector would ensure a level playing field and transparency across industry, especially in the infrastructure, hospital and education sectors.
“Corruption is not the monopoly of PSUs. The private sector also deals with money,” Dr Choubey, former CMD of GAIL, told Business Line on the sidelines of a two-day symposium being held here. “If you extend the RTI Act to the private sector, it will bring in a cleansing effect on society,” he said.
The other front, the public sector, has been in the RTI loop since 2005, but has faced many practical problems in implementing it, he said. Often the queries on PSUs' actions were raised mostly by competitors and disgruntled people and “we should know the [real] identity of the person who is throwing stones at us,” Dr Choubey said.
SOCIAL AUDIT
He said he expected the new Companies Bill to mandate the private industry also to spend its profits on CSR activities. At the same time, the money involved in CSR should be audited. “We are wholeheartedly for (CSR). Whether it reached the end-user at all” should be ascertained, he said.
Succession planning
SCOPE was also concerned about the gaps in succession planning in many PSUs. Seventy posts were vacant for CMD and directors; ONGC, for example, was without a full-time CMD since February; 250 seats for independent directors needed to filled. Vacancies should not be for more than a quarter, he said.
Earlier, Mr Arup Roy Choudhury, SCOPE Chairman and CMD of NTPC, opened the symposium. Karnataka's Chief Information Commissioner, Mr A.K.M.Nayak, said RTI had come to stay and it was important to maintain records and strengthen staff training.
Some 80 participants of the symposium discussed the two policy issues that impacted the PSUs' smooth conduct of business.
Their views would be given to the CIC and the Department of Personnel and Training.