Blue chip public sector enterprises including miniratnas and navratnas have asked the government to bring about a system of accountability to monitor the performance of government nominees on the board of directors. Seeking more powers and freedom from day-to-day interference from administrative ministries, the PSUs chiefs have raised this issue with the government through the Standing Conference on Public Sector Enterprises, the apex institution for representing more than 200 PSUs in the country.

“A feedback mechanism should be developed where a top office like the Cabinet Secretariat should conduct a review of the government director’s work in the board of the PSU. We have already floated the proposal with the department of public enterprises with a number of PSUs raising questions over the conduct and contribution of board level government nominees,” Scope director general UD Choubey told The Indian Express.

The move comes on the back of feedback from PSUs alleging that government nominees act as an impediment to the decision making process of the board, as they are unable to balance their twin role of government director and as a corporate board member, he added. In fact, Scope is also considering a government, academia and industry interaction to devise a review mechanism.

The conference has also asked the government that it should be made the nodal agency for consultation on industrial policy, export-import policies and over all policy governing the public sector.

On the issue of corporate social responsibility, Choubey said the government should create a single corpus with contributions from all PSUs and devise a policy to channelise the funds for purposes that will aid CSR work and make it more fruitful. A certain amount of PAT can be contributed by PSUs to this fund, which can be used by the government for its mission mode schemes, he added.

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