Public Enterprise Selection Board (PSEB) on Wednesday named Sharma as its number one choice for the post, which fell vacant in May when Subir Raha completed his five year term.

A K Hazarika, director (on shore), was the number two choice of the elite selection panel, which interviewed a dozen candidates on Wednesday, informed sources said.

 A recipient of the India CFO Award 2005, Sharma, 55, is a a Fellow Member of the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India and an Associate Member of the Indian Institute of Bankers.

Sources said the PSEB recommendation would now go to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) and various other agencies for necessary clearance and approval. The process may take more than a couple of months, they said.

Besides Sharma and Hazarika, all the functional directors of ONGC namely director (exploration) D K Pande, director (offshore) N K Mittra, director (human resource) A K Balyan and director (technical) U N Bose appeared for the interviews.

Sharma joined ONGC as Joint Director (Finance) in 1988. He has varied experience in project and corporate finance affairs of ONGC. Before taking charge of the post of Director (Finance), ONGC on March 1, 2002, he functioned for a short duration as Director (Finance) of ONGC Videsh Ltd a wholly owned subsidiary of ONGC.

Prior to joining ONGC, Sharma had attained rich experience in finance, banking and credit appraisal, including overseas posting as Regional Finance Head of a PSU construction company, during early eighties.

Recently, Sharma was conferred with India CFO Award 2005 Excellence in Finance in a PSU by International Market Assessment (IMA), in association with BNP Paribas, Sun Micro Systems and CNBC TV 18.