ONGC sends 48 on Houston trip
ONGC has drawn up a list of 48 executives to accompany chairman Arun Singh to Houston for the prestigious annual Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) from May 1 to 4 (2023).
Many within ONGC are critical of the decision to send so many delegates. Particular criticism is levelled against delegates from the finance and HR department to an exclusively offshore oil and gas technical event.
Group general managers (Ms) Anuradha Chaudhuri and Ravinder Singh Negi from the finance director's office and executive director AP Singh, and general manager NC Baliar Singh from the HR director's office are on the list. Released on April 11 (2023), it includes three directors: chairman Arun Singh, supported by Ashish Jain and Vinesh Chauhan, from his office; Pankaj Kumar, supported by 27 staff from his (director production's) office; and director exploration (Ms) Sushma Rawat, supported by six staff from her office: Vishal Shastry, K Karvannan, Suresh Chandra, RN Goswami, Jayant Bhagat and Anupam Sharma.
Eight officers from the director T&FS office will attend: Prasun Sinha, RM Patil, Shanmuk Naik, RC Banerjee, AK Srivastava, MV Hijas, Bikram Sarkar and Vishal Tyagi. Hari Kumar, a former ONGC executive and vociferous critic, accuses ONGC of preparing the list "without any thought."
Kumar stresses no executives below the E4 level (superintending engineer/chief manager) are on the list. "E4 is middle management (officers) and have, maybe, another 15 years to retire," he tells us.
"Instead of E4 and above, ONGC should send people from the E1, E2 and E3 levels (functional level executives) so they return with fresh ideas." Hidden in small print at the bottom of the list is the apparent attraction: "The delegates shall be entitled to admissible FTA/DA (Foreign Travel Allowance/Dearness Allowance) as per the applicable ONGC rule on the subject."