Govt to amend NTB Act to ease CEO appointment
KATHMANDU, OCT 21 -
Tourism Minister Deepak Chandra Amatya has said his ministry is preparing to amend the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) Act to make the chief executive appointment process easier.
NTB, which is responsible for promoting Nepal’s tourism in national and international arenas, has been stumbling along without its head since the then CEO Prachanda Man Shrestha’s tenure expired on Oct 31, 2011.
Under the NTB Act and Regulation, a three-member sub-committee should be formed from among five members representing the private sector on the board to appoint the CEO.
However, the process has stalled due to the conflict of interests among the members. The government officials have charged due to politics, the members had not been able to select the CEO. Twelve candidates have been shortlisted for the CEO’s post.
Last year, a government-formed sub-committee entrusted with the job of recommending structural and functional restructuring of NTB suggested a five-member CEO selection sub-committee to settle issues and avoid such an embarrassment in the future. It has recommended the appointment of four members representing heads of national-level business organisations.
In addition, as per the recommendation, if the selection sub-committee fails to appoint the CEO within three months, the board itself should proceed ahead with the selection process, according to the report submitted to the ministry. If the CEO post remains vacant, the committee has suggested authorising one of the board members with the executive powers until a new chief is appointed. The candidate should possess a Master’s degree. However, the report was not implemented.
Amatya told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Monday his ministry was committed to punish those NTB officials involved in financial irregularities. The PAC is likely to direct the government to take action against the NTB officials involved in financial irregularities on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, former Tourism Minister Ram Kumar Shrestha, who has been accused of abusing the authority while reappointing Dhurba Narayan Shrestha and Rewat Bahadur Thapa as NTB’s board members told the lawmakers he had followed due process while making the appointments. “The NTB Act says the ministry can extend the term of a board member for three years directly,” he told the PAC.
But what is absurd is the former minister was ignorant that a nomination committee needs to be formed to appoint the members.
A complaint was filed over the reappointment of the two private sector representatives at the Patan Appellate Court. Subsequently, the court issued orders to bar them to sit in any board’s meetings.
On lawmakers’ questions on why he recruited his nearer and dearer ones directly, he responded saying that country’s law does not bar recruiting people in any organisation. He also questioned the lawmakers why were they were linking the appointments with NTB’s financial irregularities issue.
“During my 11-month term, there were no issues regarding financial irregularities,” he said, adding the tourism minister is not responsible for looking discretely into the affairs of NTB, as it is chaired by the secretary.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
