The State government has reconstituted the Public Sector Restructuring and Internal Audit Board (RIAB) as the Board for Public Sector Transformation (BPT), as per the recommendations of an expert committee headed by former Chief Secretary Paul Antony, which had last year submitted a report on granting autonomy with accountability to public sector units in the State.
K. Ajith Kumar, former Executive Director of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) Kochi Refinery, has been appointed as the Chairman of BPT, while P. Sathish Kumar, the current Managing Director of Kerala Ceramics, has been appointed as the Member Secretary. Industries Minister P. Rajeeve said that the formation of BPT is an important step in modernising the public sector.
RIAB was formed in 1990 for auditing and accounting of public sector units. It was later empowered supervisory powers. One of its major objectives was to supervise the activities of public sector institutions and provide support in technical, financial and management areas. The committee headed by Paul Antony had recommended giving operational autonomy with accountability to public sector organisations, based on which the decision to reorganise RIAB has been taken. In addition to the Chairman and Member Secretary, the Principal Secretary of the Industries department and three experts are members of the Board. The government will later nominate expert members from the fields of management, finance and technology.
