Pachauri in a spot as climategate hits TERI

Ajmer Singh
New Delhi, January 10, 2010

Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of UN's Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), had advocated emission reductions at the recently concluded Copenhagen Climate Summit.

But back home in India, he seems to be failing to uphold standards of propriety in his professional dealings.

During his tenure, first as director from 1982, and then as director-general of The Energy Research Institute (TERI) since 2001, Pachauri was a member of the boards of the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), three of India's biggest public sector energy companies, all of whom by the very nature of their business contribute heavily to greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions, according to the IPCC, are adding to the country's growing carbon footprint and hastening climate change.

TERI, in fact, entered into business dealings with these companies and allegedly benefitted from Pachauri's association with them. Pachauri's dealings have also been noticed by the international media. Recently, the Sunday Telegraph of London had accused him of amassing a fortune using his links with carbon trading companies. Pachauri dismisses the report as "a pack of lies".

The climate change hero was an independent director on ONGC's board for three years between June 2006 and June 2009, during which he was entitled to first-class air travel when he attended meetings, five-star hotel stays and an allowance of Rs 25,000 for each meeting attended. This was in addition to having a say in the PSU's decision-making process. It was during this period that TERI had secured business contracts from ONGC.

This practice is against ONGC's official code of conduct which says: "The directors and management shall act within the authority conferred upon them in the best interests of the company and will use their prudent judgment to avoid all situations, decisions or relationships which give or could give rise to conflict of interest or appear to conflict with their responsibilities within the company."

Pachauri says he is now not on the board of any public sector undertaking. "What is stated applies only for short periods in the past," he replied to a questionnaire sent by Mail Today. "TERI is a not-for-profit organisation working for the welfare of society and its revenues cover costs and provide no private benefit to any party."

Pachauri's position is untenable, as ONGC and TERI launched a joint business venture in March 2008 called ONGC-TERI Biotech Ltd (OTBL); this was while the TERI director-general was on its board. This entity's objective was the "large-scale application of microbial product oil zapper for clean-up of oil spills in farmers' fields and around oil installations and treatment of oily sludge hazardous hydrocarbon waste".

TERI had a 47 per cent share in OTBL; ONGC held 49 per cent and the rest was picked up by financial institutions. The OTBL official website says ONGC and TERI reserve the rights of patents and the use of technology and patents exclusively. When asked about this, Pachauri said: "The joint venture (OTBL) was established largely at the insistence of ONGC. A decision to set up OTBL was taken only on October 31, 2006, at a board meeting that I did not even attend." Does that mean he wasn't even aware of the decision to set up OTBL? OTBL was set up in 2008, and ONGC insiders told this correspondent all the work awarded to TERI was done on a nomination basis and not through tenders, as is the accepted practice.

Pachauri for his part claims that "TERI has not even charged OTBL any royalty for the technology provided to ONGC and other oil companies in India, as is the case with most IITs and CSIR labs. Any funds provided to TERI are purely to cover costs of activities carried out and performed successfully." Another senior ONGC official confirmed to Mail Today that close to Rs 30 crore was paid directly and indirectly to TERI over a period of time for the execution of projects, which included bio-remediation, pipeline corrosion inhibitors and microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR).

OTBL was also involved in these transactions, he said. Pachauri denied this as well......

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