Bhubaneswar, June 15: The state-owned public sector undertakings (PSUs) have been asked to improve their efficiency and expand business to open market for survival.
“Don’t depend only on captive purchase by the government. Expand your business to open market,” said chief secretary B.K. Patnaik while reviewing the performance of the public sector undertakings.
Patnaik advised the PSUs to present themselves as “corporate entities” and not as mere “extension wings of administrative departments”.
Development commissioner and additional chief secretary in charge of finance Jugal Kishore Mohapatra asked the PSUs to go for professional management.
As part of the PSU reform, the state government has been signing MoU with the PSUs for the past three years, setting definite targets and goals for the year. Seventeen PSUs had signed MoUs with the government through the public enterprise department during 2011-12. Next year, 22 had inked the MoU and 24 this year.
The performance of each PSU was evaluated on the basis of their fulfilling the targets and achievements laid down in the MoUs.
Four PSUs — Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Odisha Limited (IPICOL), Odisha Forest Development Corporation (OFDC), Odisha Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC) and Odisha Power Transmission Corporation Limited (OPTCL) — were given “excellent” grade for the brilliant performance during 2011-12.
Similarly, performance of four more PSUs — Odisha State Seed Corporation (OSSC), Odisha State Cashew Development Corporation (OSCDC), Odisha State Warehousing Corporation (OSWC) and Odisha State Financial Corporation (OSFC) — was adjudged as “very good”.
The public sector units were asked to prepare their own Enterprise Resource Planning (EPR) to scale up their activities in open market starting from product planning, manufacturing, material procurement, inventory control, distribution, accounting, marketing, finance to human resource management.
According to a latest report of the Comptroller & Auditor General of India on PSUs for 2011-12, seven of 36 working PSUs in the state incurred a loss of Rs 1,009.79 crore. Gridco suffered highest loss of Rs 936.81 crore.
“There is scope to improve the functioning and enhance profits. The PSUs can discharge their role efficiently only if they are financially self-reliant. There is a need for greater professionalism and accountability,” the report had observed.
