New Delhi: In significant changes in the selection process for appointment of public sector bank chiefs, three screening committees will now interview eligible candidates on November 13-14.
The need for a fresh selection process for appointing CMDs in public sector banks arose as the government had recently scrapped selections made by the previous UPA regime.
An appointment board, headed by RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, will hold interviews of eligible candidates for the post of CMDs of 8 public sector banks on November 13-14, Financial Services Secretary G S Sandhu said on Friday.
"Our efforts would be to complete our part by November 14 and send the shortlisted names to the Finance Minister for further action. Appointments in these eight positions will be hopefully be over by November-end," he said.
"The selection process would be more objective and transparent as there would be more external members and the selection would be vetted by three sub-committee," he said.
Each sub-committee will have two members and all eligible candidates will have to go through all these screening panel separately, he said.
The final selection would be made by the appointment board chaired by RBI Governor based on the weighted average marks given by sub-committees to ensure objectivity and transparency.
Talking about changes made in the selection panels vis-a-vis the earlier one, Sandhu said there would be four external members as against three earlier.
Besides, the sub-committee concept has been introduced and a member of one sub-committee would not be part of the other panel, he said.
The sub-committee members would be Department of Financial Services Secretary, RBI Deputy Governor and four experts, making it total six members in three sub-committees he said.
The eligibility criteria remain more or less same in the current fiscal.
Last time, 19 candidates appeared for interviews for six vacancies of Chairman and Managing Director (CMD).
Now, there could be about 16 eligible candidates for posts of eight CMDs.
Following shortlisting by the high level panel, the names of the candidates would be sent to Finance Minister and subsequently to the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC). In the mean time, the process for vigilance and other necessary clearances would be undertaken.
Earlier this week, the government had scrapped the selection of six PSU bank heads and 14 executive directors (EDs) made during the UPA tenure following a separate panel finding irregularities in the process.
The UPA government had shortlisted candidates for appointment as heads of Bank of Baroda (BoB), Canara Bank, Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), Oriental Bank of Commerce, United Bank and Vijaya Bank.
Besides, the post of CMDs have become vacant in Punjab National Bank and Syndicate Bank owing to to non-grant of extension and arrest and termination previous head, respectively.
Following the arrest of Syndicate Bank Chairman and Managing Director S K Jain, the ministry had set up a committee comprising Expenditure Secretary, RBI Governor and Secretary School Education to examine the selections process.
"After receipt of the report of the Committee, the government has decided to cancel the current selection process of CMDs/EDs of Public Sector Banks (PSBs)," a Finance Ministry statement had said.
Syndicate Bank chief Jain was arrested in August for allegedly receiving a bribe of Rs 50 lakh to enhance credit limits of a company.
The Finance Ministry is also looking at changing the selection process of statutory auditors of public sector banks.
"The objective of this is to have smooth audit and give autonomy to banks. At the moment, there are some issues," Sandhu said, adding that bank involvement is not there in selecting the statutory auditors as of now.
At the moment, auditors are being appointed by a panel headed by Additional Secretary of Department of Financial Services, Chairman Indian Banks' Association and representative of CAG.
"So, there is no representation from the bank. We are therefore looking to include banks in the selection process," he said.
Asked about the forensic audit relating to fixed deposit scam in Dena Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce, Sandhu said some irregularities have been found and necessary action is being taken.
