The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation limited (ONGC) has urged the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to exempt it from corporate governance rules pertaining to the appointment of independent directors to its board.
The low number of independent directors at ONGC and other public sector enterprises is a cause of concern in their corporate governance and there is a huge vacancy of Independent directors at ONGC and various other PSEs, as the power to appointment Independent Directors rests with the government, regulated by SEBI, which is unable to fill the posts with qualified officials and senior bureaucrats on time.
The Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements (LODR) require that any company without a non-executive chairman should have a board of directors, comprising at least 50 per cent independent directors. At present, on ONGC’s board of 12 directors, only two are independent, when there is an immediate requirement of 4 more independent directors and due to the stringent regulations, ONGC is not able to fill the vacant posts. (IE)
