Centre Sets Three-Month Deadline for CPSEs to Fill Top Management Vacancies

The government has directed administrative ministries to fill top management vacancies at central public sector enterprises within three months, according to an order issued this week. The directive covers posts of Chairman and Managing Director, Managing Director, and functional Directors across CPSEs, and comes amid mounting concern within the Department of Public Enterprises over how long some of these positions have been running on additional-charge arrangements.

The order matters because top management posts at CPSEs are typically filled through the Public Enterprises Selection Board, a process that involves inviting applications, screening candidates and conducting interviews before a name is forwarded to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. When ministries delay initiating this process, boards end up being run by officers holding charge in addition to their substantive roles, which can slow down investment decisions, capital expenditure approvals and other board-level matters that require a full-time chief executive.

Data reviewed by the Department of Public Enterprises shows that a significant number of CMD and Director-level posts across CPSEs under ministries such as Coal, Power, Steel, Petroleum and Heavy Industries have remained vacant for periods ranging from six months to over two years, with serving directors or officers from sister companies holding additional charge in the interim. The pattern has been flagged repeatedly in Parliamentary Standing Committee reports, which have pointed out that additional-charge arrangements dilute accountability at the board level.

Ministries have now been asked to initiate the PESB process at least four months before a vacancy is expected to arise, rather than waiting for a post to fall vacant before starting the search. This applies to superannuation-driven vacancies, which are predictable well in advance, as well as vacancies created by transfers or resignations, which ministries have been asked to flag to PESB within a fortnight.

The three-month deadline is part of a broader push by the Department of Public Enterprises to tighten CPSE governance ahead of the current financial year's capital expenditure cycle, during which many PSUs are expected to finalise expansion and modernisation plans requiring full board approval. Ministries that fail to meet the deadline will be required to explain the delay to the Department of Public Enterprises, officials said.

For CPSEs themselves, prolonged vacancies at the top create practical difficulties beyond governance optics. An officer holding additional charge of a CMD post, on top of their own substantive role, is often reluctant to commit to long-term capital decisions or major contracts, preferring to leave such calls to a permanent appointee. This has, in some cases, delayed tendering for expansion projects and stalled board-level approvals for new investments running into hundreds of crores.

The order has been circulated to all administrative ministries with CPSEs under their charge, with the Department of Public Enterprises expected to review compliance at the end of the three-month window. Ministries have also been asked to submit a status report at the six-week mark, giving the department an interim checkpoint before the full three-month deadline lapses, officials said.

The directive does not name specific CPSEs or vacant posts, applying instead as a general instruction to all ministries with board-level vacancies at their affiliated public sector enterprises. Officials said the Department of Public Enterprises would compile a consolidated list of pending vacancies across ministries once the current round of status reports is received, which would then be used to track compliance against the three-month deadline on a post-by-post basis.