Sub-committee to manage NTB

KATHMANDU:

A board meeting of Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) today decided that a sub-committee would look after the management of NTB as a stop gap measure. A joint secretary level official of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation will be the member secretary of the sub-committee and the same official will work as the chief administrative officer (CAO) for now.

The sub-committee will have five members under the coordination of Rajendra Sapkota, a NTB board member representing private sector. Ghanendra Shrestha, a member of the board, said that the sub-committee will have three members from private sector and two from the Tourism Ministry.

Today’s board meeting of NTB decided to form the sub-committee as per Clause 13 (1) of the NTB Act 1997, which has a provision to form such a committee to carry out ‘activities as deemed necessary’. The board took the decision after the senior most manager of NTB refused to take on the role of acting chief of NTB citing health reasons, according to a board member.

Of late, the national tourism promotion body is going through a crisis as the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on Friday filed corruption case against its 23 incumbent and former officials, with over Rs 810 million in question. All the incumbent officials were suspended automatically after CIAA filed the case in the Special Court.

Those who are charged of corruption includes four board members (Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, Rewat Bahadur Thapa, Dhruba Narayan Shrestha and Phur Gyalzen Sherpa) and tops officials — Nandini Lahe Thapa, officiating CEO (who is also member secretary of NTB board), two senior directors and seven directors — of NTB.

The NTB board has 11 members, of whom seven are serving in the board at present. “The sub-committee will also be delegated some power of the board to run NTB,” said Shrestha, who has also been appointed

as member secretary of the NTB board today. Normally, CEO of NTB is entrusted the job of board’s member secretary. He said that they would prepare terms of reference for the sub-committee within few days so that it can be delegated power.

Clause 22 (1) of the NTB Act has a provision which allows the board to delegate some or all out of its power to any member, sub-committee or CEO as per necessity. As it is not clear when the government is going to appoint a new CEO and when the Special Court would come with its final verdict regarding the charges on NTB officials, the sub-committee’s tenure has not been fixed.

With the appointment of CAO, NTB will resume all of its normal duties within a week, according to Shrestha. Based on the decision of the board, which is headed by Suresh Shrestha, the Tourism Ministry secretary, the Tourism Ministry will be corresponded on Tuesday to depute a member secretary and a member to the sub-committee.Likewise, the board also decided to request joint tourism coordination committee (JTCC) to send two members for the sub-committee.

Source: THT