Interactive Meet of GAIL Management with External Independent Monitors

An Interactive Meet of the newly appointed Independent External Monitors (IEMs) with GAIL Management was held on January 9, 2008 at GAIL Bhavan, New Delhi. Present on the occasion were Admiral (Retd.) R. H. Tahiliani, Chairman, Transparency International India, Shri P.S. Bawa, Vice Chairman TII, Shri S.K. Agarwal, Vice Chairman, TII, Independent External Monitors (IEMs) - Dr. A. K. Kundra, former Secretary, Government of India, Shri S. C. Tripathi, former Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Shri U. Sundararajan, former CMD, BPCL, Dr. U. D. Choubey, Chairman and Managing Director, GAIL, Shri M. R. Hingnikar, Director (HR), Shri R. K. Goel, Director (Finance), Shri Santosh Kumar, Director (Projects), Shri A. K. Purwaha, Director (BD), and Shri Arvind Jadhav, Chief Vigilance Officer, GAIL.

GAIL has embarked upon a course to implement the Integrity Pact in all its major procurements as a Corporate Governance initiative under the MoU signed with Transparency International India (TII). The Integrity Pact Programme focuses at enhancing operational transparency in the contracts and procurements process of the Company. Integrity Pact is a tool devised by TII worldwide to fight corruption in public procurement. The IEMS have been nominated as Independent External Monitors (IEMs) in consultation with the CVC to oversee the entire bidding process from day one and resolve all disputes by any party as and when referred to them.

The programme began with the welcoming of the guests with bouquets and the welcome address delivered by GAIL CVO Shri Arvind Jadhav.As part of the introduction to the guests presentations were given by Shri S.S. Patel, DGM (Vig) on the Integrity pact, Shri Rajeev Mathur, GM (IGS) on the activities of the company, Shri Ashutosh Karnatak on the upcoming pipelines and Shri Shama Sundara, DGM (C&P) on Contracts and Procurements.

While addressing the audience, Dr. U D Choubey, CMD, GAIL emphasized the role of Integrity Pact as an important tool for Corporate Governance which would also ‘guard the guardians’. Shri Santosh Kumar, Dir (Projects) in his address spoke about the cruciality of ensuring fair and transparent practices in a Public Sector Company as we are accountable for every penny of Public money.

As a token of appreciation and gratitude, Dr. U.D. Choubey presented mementoes to all the guests including Adml. (Retd.) R.H.Tahiliani and the team from TII and as well to all the Independent External Monitors.

The ceremony was concluded with the vote of thanks by Shri S.K. Singh, ED (C&P).