NAC MD Kharel resigns
KATHMANDU, MAR 16
Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) Managing Director Madan Kharel on Sunday resigned for what is believed to be a growing power tussle with his chairman Shiva Sharan Neupane.
Sources said the relationship between Kharel and Neupane had grown sour since Neupane took office last August. Kharel was selected in free competition. Neupane is a political appointee and close relative to former UML chairman Jhalanath Khanal.
The trigger for the resignation came when NAC’s new Airbus’ maiden flight to Kathmandu -Delhi sector on February 25 was cancelled. It was revealed the inaugural flight to Delhi had to be abruptly cancelled a day before as the navigation and airport database of Delhi Airport had not been installed on the aircraft.
Kharel was grilled by the NAC board on the issue. “Intension of the board meeting was clear. To exert pressure on the managing director,” said a board member, who did not want to be named.
The issue was attributed to “utter negligence” on the part of NAC’s operation and engineering department and someone had to be scapegoated, according to a source. “The chairman had been tabling ‘unnecessary’ agendas backed by politicians.”
Neupane refuted the growing power tussle. “We had never intervened on Kharel’s works,” said Neupane. He, however, said Kharel unilaterally had fixed the inaugural flight date to Delhi without the board’s consent.”
The Post’s repeated attempts to contact Kharel were unsuccessful.
It was under Kharel leadership the NAC procured two Airbus A320 planes, after 27 years. The second jet is expected to be delivered by April. In NAC’s domestic fleet expansion, Kharel took ahead the procurement process of six Chinese-made aircraft. The corporation also prepared a 10-year business turnaround plan under Kharel’s leadership last year.
NAC has proposed acquiring 15 new aircraft by 2024 for its domestic and international fleets. The airline will then revive all its suspended routes and operate on new lucrative sectors.
The government ended the dual power arrangement at NAC and appointed Kharel as managing director through open competition in December 2012 after being fed up by a five-year power struggle between the managing director and the executive chairman.
Kharel had been named NAC chief by the government’s Chief Executive Appointment Recommendation Committee to put an end to the constant tug-of-war between the two bosses due to their apparently overlapping jurisdiction.
However, on June 4, 2014, the then Tourism Minister Bhim Prasad Acharya, decided to revive the dual executive power system by appointing Neupane as its executive chairman even though it already had a managing director as the chief. However, the proposal was rejected by the Cabinet.
Again in August, Acharya tabled another proposal at the Cabinet to appoint Neupane as the chairman.
This time, the Cabinet approved the proposal. Neupane’s entry into the boardroom was the first step towards the chairman’s post as traditionally Tourism Secretary holds the post. “Appointing a chairman from outside a government agency could create a dispute at the corporation, and it became real,” said an NAC official.
“As the chairman had been given the role of taking decisions on every proposal tabled by the management, there had been a tug-of-war between the managing director and the chairman every time the agendas were presented.”
Neupane had formerly been named to the NAC board when Manarup Shahi was the executive chairman. He was subsequently removed as there was one member too many on the seven-member board which violated the NAC Act 1963.
Neupane had previously served the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal as a manager. He illegally stayed for a long time in Japan when he was sent to attend a seminar of the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers’ Associations there. He was later deported.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
