Govt to help find suitable partner for NT this fiscal

KATHMANDU, FEB 06 - The long-standing plan to bring in a strategic partner in Nepal Telecom (NT) may see a breakthrough this fiscal. Minister for Information and Communications Madhav Prasad Paudel on Wednesday said that the government would shortly finalise on a strategic partner most suitable for the purpose.

Addressing the 10th anniversary of NT, Poudel said the state-owned telecom operator is finalising on hiring a consultant that will help it find a suitable strategic partner. The NT is currently working on terms of reference for a consultant to be hired. “The ToR will be finalised within a week,” said Dhruba Prasad Sharma, secretary at the Communications Ministry and chairman of the NT board.

The consultant will play a vital role in finding a strategic partner by a due diligence audit (DDA) report of the NT and documents for calling a tender.

The government has been planning for last years to rope in a strategic partner amid constraints in procurement affairs and growing competition with private telecom companies. However, the work to this effect has moved at snail’s pace due to procedural delays.

Four months ago, the government had allowed the NT in principle to tie up with a competent international partner without mentioning the stake to be sold.

Amid criticism of Public Procurement Act affecting NT’s procurement process, Communications Ministry officials said that they were coordinating with the Public Procurement Monitoring Office for necessary changes in the law.

Chief Secretary Leela Mani Paudyal said if the PPA was really a major hurdle, the government is ready to make necessary changes including enacting a separate bylaw to ease the NT procurement process.

Paudyal also advised the NT to focus on making customers satisfied with its services. “No matter how many lucrative schemes NT would bring out, they would all be useless if customers are not satisfied,” said Paudel.

NT Managing Direcor Anup Ranjan Bhattarai said that the ongoing projects like 10 million GSM mobile lines, 2 million IP CDMA and 200,000 lines WiMax lines would play important roles in taking the company ahead in the competitive market.

In a bid to hold NT officials responsible with their duty, the NT is also preparing to introduce a performance contract with officials above the rank of project managers. “The idea of performance contract is basically aimed at completing the assigned tasks on time,” he added.

Source: The Kathmandu Post