Power distribution companies (DISCOs) can now change requirements for the appointment of Chief Executive Officers under the existing requirements.
The Cabinet approved during a recent meeting that the board of directors of DISCOs can now make changes to the CEO selection criteria.
As per the existing requirements, only engineers are eligible to apply for the position. However, power companies have so far failed to recruit suitable candidates for the top seat at the table, prompting regulations to ease conditions for hiring candidates as DISCOs pose it as a last resort.
Notably, the issue was raised during the process of appointing the new CEO of the Gujranwala Electric Power Company (GEPCO), which is one of the ten electricity distribution entities under the Power Division’s administrative jurisdiction. To guarantee uniformity, the cabinet authorized a proposal for the eligibility requirements and terms and conditions for CEOs of all ten DISCOs in a meeting held on December 15, 2020.
Following that, DISCOs began the hiring process and advertised the position. The employment process had been completed in some organizations, but suitable applicants are yet to be found in others. Therefore, these companies, including GEPCO, are now restarting their recruitment efforts.
Previously, the chairman of the Gepco board of directors requested that the Power Division accept adjustments to the eligibility criteria, which had previously been authorized by the cabinet because the present standards barred non-engineers from applying for the position of CEO.
With this in mind, the Power Division proposed that, because the boards of directors were given the authority to determine the terms and conditions for the advertisement/appointment of the CEO under Section 188(a), they be allowed to do so as they saw fit, as long as the relevant provisions of the law and guidelines were strictly enforced.
It should be noted that the revisions to the cabinet’s earlier judgments would apply to all other distribution businesses where the process was still ongoing, and their boards deemed the need to alter terms and conditions.
