NEW DELHI: The government's inaction has meant that State Bank of India, the country's largest lender with 25% market share, will not just remain without a full-time chairman but also have four of the five executive positions on the board going vacant.
Even the fifth slot could meet the same fate as managing director R Sridharan, who has been named as the officiating chairman on O P Bhatt's retirement on Thursday, is due to superannuate in three months.
Apart from independent directors and government nominees, the SBI board had an executive chairman and two managing directors. With legal amendments, it is now possible for the government to appoint two more MDs.
But forget filling up the two new slots, the government has failed to appoint a replacement for S K Bhattacharya, who retired as MD in October. Similarly, despite knowing nearly five years ago that Bhatt would retire at the end of March 2011, the finance ministry chose to initiate the appointment process late.
As a result when queries were raised by the cabinet secretary and the Prime Minister's Office, the ministry did not have time to address them in time for Bhatt's retirement.
What's more, even after receiving a go ahead from the appointments committee of cabinet, the department of financial services has asked the Establishment Officer to put on hold the appointment of one Managing Director.
For the moment, there is no clarity on who would move to the corner office at SBI's Nariman Point headquarters. While deputy managing director Pratip Chaudhury was the top choice of the selection panel, chief financial officer Hemant Contractor was the second most preferred option.
When it comes to filling up Bhattacharya's vacancy - Contractor is option 1 followed by Chaudhury. As for the two new slots, deputy managing director Diwakar Gupta's notification has been put on hold till the government can decide on who the chairman (and consequently the MD) would be. For the fourth slot, the appointments committee of cabinet is yet to clear A Krishna Kumar, another SBI DMD.
Officials, however, said that too much should not be read into State Bank appointments as not finalizing top-level appointments in public sector companies seems to be the norm. After all, ONGC and BSNL are still without a full-time CMDs, while IndianOil remained headless for several months.
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Even the fifth slot could meet the same fate as managing director R Sridharan, who has been named as the officiating chairman on O P Bhatt's retirement on Thursday, is due to superannuate in three months.
Apart from independent directors and government nominees, the SBI board had an executive chairman and two managing directors. With legal amendments, it is now possible for the government to appoint two more MDs.
But forget filling up the two new slots, the government has failed to appoint a replacement for S K Bhattacharya, who retired as MD in October. Similarly, despite knowing nearly five years ago that Bhatt would retire at the end of March 2011, the finance ministry chose to initiate the appointment process late.
As a result when queries were raised by the cabinet secretary and the Prime Minister's Office, the ministry did not have time to address them in time for Bhatt's retirement.
What's more, even after receiving a go ahead from the appointments committee of cabinet, the department of financial services has asked the Establishment Officer to put on hold the appointment of one Managing Director.
For the moment, there is no clarity on who would move to the corner office at SBI's Nariman Point headquarters. While deputy managing director Pratip Chaudhury was the top choice of the selection panel, chief financial officer Hemant Contractor was the second most preferred option.
When it comes to filling up Bhattacharya's vacancy - Contractor is option 1 followed by Chaudhury. As for the two new slots, deputy managing director Diwakar Gupta's notification has been put on hold till the government can decide on who the chairman (and consequently the MD) would be. For the fourth slot, the appointments committee of cabinet is yet to clear A Krishna Kumar, another SBI DMD.
Officials, however, said that too much should not be read into State Bank appointments as not finalizing top-level appointments in public sector companies seems to be the norm. After all, ONGC and BSNL are still without a full-time CMDs, while IndianOil remained headless for several months.
toi
