The Standing Committee on Finance has urged the government to form a task force to fill 38 vacant posts at the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM). The committee's report, presented in Parliament in March, noted that DIPAM currently operates with only 51 officers, significantly below its sanctioned strength of 89.
This shortfall is said to "severely jeopardise" the department's ability to manage complex financial transactions, such as the sale of IDBI Bank and finalising MoUs with Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs). The panel emphasized that understaffing hampers DIPAM's operational efficiency and recommended immediate steps to close the manpower gap.
It called for establishing a task force to ensure all vacancies are filled promptly, highlighting that routine administrative correspondence is insufficient for a department managing a public asset portfolio exceeding ₹42.76 lakh crore. The committee's observations reflect rising concerns over delays and difficulties in executing strategic disinvestment and asset management initiatives due to inadequate human resources at DIPAM.
