Hearing on PEB case postponed yet again

KATHMANDU:

Hearing on a case related to Public Enterprises Board (PEB) filed at the Supreme Court has once again been postponed, further affecting the process of selecting heads of state-owned enterprises through open competition.

This is the fourth time the hearing on the case has been deferred.

“We were told today that the hearing was postponed. We do not know the reason,” PEB Chief Bimal Wagle said. “The court would probably give us a new date for hearing in a few days.”

Supreme Court officials could not be reached for comments.

PEB was established in December 2011 to monitor, supervise and regulate all state-owned firms. However, its work, since its establishment, has been limited to recommending names for the post of chief executives at public enterprises through open competition.

The government has already appointed heads at 12 different public enterprises based on recommendations laid by the PEB.

But even this work of recommending names of chief executives has remained affected since August last year when one Binit Kumar Singh filed a case at the apex court demanding that the government hand-pick chief executives at public enterprises rather than select them through open competition.

Based on this petition, the Supreme Court, on September 5 last year, asked the PEB to halt the selection process until issuance of another order.

A hearing by apex court’s special bench was then supposed to be held on March 6. But it could not take place after the court agreed to reschedule it based on the petitioner’s request.

The hearing was then postponed till May 8.

“But on May 8, the hearing was again deferred citing presence of only four justices at the court,” Wagle said. The

hearing was then rescheduled for July 10, which was again postponed for today.

As the hearings are being postponed, the government has started nominating heads at public enterprises. This means candidates for the top post of public enterprises need not submit business plans or face interviews as in the days when PEB was conducting the selection process.

Financial health of many public enterprises have continuously deteriorated over the years because of overstaffing, political interference, troubles caused by trade unions, frequent change in board members and chief executives, and inability to compete with the private sector.

Another reason for weak performance of public enterprises is lack of strong leadership, which emanates from practice of handpicking chief executives without testing the person’s ability to steer the company.

The PEB was entrusted with the task of recommending names for the top posts of public enterprises through open

competition solely to address this problem.

“If PEB wins the court case, I’ll restart the process of appointing chief executives through open competition. This includes

public enterprises where the government has nominated heads,” Wagle said, adding, “The job of recommending names for heads at state-owned enterprises falls under the jurisdiction of the PEB, and I won’t make any compromise in this regard.”

Source: THT