HEIDC to relax eligibility requirement for CEO
KATHMANDU, MAR 26 -
Hydro Electricity Investment and Development Company (HEIDC) has planned to relax the eligibility requirements for the post of chief executive officer as its stringent qualification criteria attracted a meagre number of applicants.
The company’s board has endorsed a new easier criteria in its memorandum and articles of association which will be presented to a special annual general meeting (SGM) to be held soon.
According to the existing criteria, only candidates with seven years’ experience as chief executive officer in a banking institution are eligible to apply. The requirement has been relaxed to allow applicants from other sectors to take part in the selection process too.
“Even persons having experience in government service or the financial sector will be eligible to apply for the job,” said Ejendra Prasad Luitel, coordinator of the management team assigned to work in the company temporarily.
With the PE Directorate Board Formation Order allowing even government employees to work as CEO of PEs, the company sought to make its criteria compatible with it.
“However, the proposed criteria will not open the door for bureaucrats to dominate the company,” said Luitel. The company has asked the PE Directorate Board to appoint a CEO for it after it failed to hire one in its last two efforts. The order has also brought the company under the purview of the PE board. The new criteria is expected to open the way for the PE board to appoint the company’s CEO.
Besides welcoming applicants from other sectors, the proposed criteria has also been flexible with regard to the experience requirement. “If the candidate is a CEO of a banking institution, it is adequate to have three years’ experience,” said Luitel. “However, if the applicant is a department head, it is necessary to have seven years’ experience.”
HEIDC has issued notices twice calling for applications for the post of CEO, but each time there were an inadequate number of candidates to ensure fair competition. Company officials hope that the proposed criteria, if endorsed by the SGM, will attract more candidates.
However, it is likely that the CEO appointment process will be delayed as the company is yet to fix the date of the SGM. As per the rules, it is necessary to issue a notice 15 days before the AGM is scheduled to be held, and the AGM has been put on hold in the absence of the board chairman.
“The energy secretary who is our board chairman will be leaving on a foreign trip in the next two weeks, so we will not be able to hold the AGM before mid-April,” said Luitel.
Recently, promoter partners Rastriya Beema Sansthan and Citizens Investment Trust have injected capital in the company. With all the promoters having a stake in the company, it is now in a position to hold the SGM.
Source: Kantipur
