Centre eases norms for granting extension to top honchos of PSUs, public sector banks

The Centre, on Thursday, eased norms for granting extension to top officials of public sector units and public sector banks.

The new policy defines guidelines for extension of tenure of board level incumbents where vigilance clearance is not available.

The guidelines have been issued by the Department of Personnel and Training. Recently, there have been two cases where the Government has waited till the last day and beyond for vigilance clearance, before deciding on granting extension. Earlier this week, Chairman and Managing Director of Punjab National Bank KR Kamath was denied extension on the last day of his term, although he had slightly over a year before turning 60 years.

The Chairman of Airport Authority of India, VP Agarwal, completed his five-year term on December 31, 2013, much before his age of retirement, but was asked to continue before he was removed in January when the CVC’s denial of extension came by.

Timeline prescribed Under the existing policy, in case the initial term of five years of a board-level appointee ends prior to the date of retirement, he/ she can be given extension up to the date of superannuation by the Appointment Committee of Cabinet (ACC). But, this comes with caveats: the person should get vigilance clearance and he/she should meet the prescribed performance parameters.

The new guidelines have prescribed a timeline for this action. It also states that no cognizance will be taken on complaints filed six months prior to the terminal date of the approved tenure.

It also says that the Central Vigilance Commission may give clearance within two months from receiving request from the administrative ministries. But, where there is delay on part of the CVC in meeting the timeline, merely on account of procedural reasons, the case of extension could be processed without waiting any further.

However, in case where CVC clearance is awaited, and there are cases/complaints pending against the officer, the administrative ministry will forward a proposal to ACC two months prior to end of the term with all details about complaints and comment by the concerned Ministry.

According to the DoPT memorandum, it has been frequently observed that there is a spate of allegations and complaints against board-level officials, whose names are due to come up for extension. Though it said that no cognizance should be taken on such complaints, it also said that such complaints should be dealt with as per the normal procedure.

“Disregarding such complaints received after the cut-off date at the time of deciding upon extension of tenure may not be of any serious consequence as the appointment can always be terminated at a later date if the charges are substantiated on the basis of an inquiry,” it said.

Strict adherence It also advised all the Ministries and Departments to strictly adhere to the time-line and procedural guidelines stipulated above for processing the proposals for extension of tenure of Board level appointees.

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