Nepal Telecom gets MD

KATHMANDU:

The government appointed Budhi Prasad Acharya as managing director (MD) of Nepal Telecom (NT) today. Prior to this appointment, Acharya was working in the capacity of officiating MD of the state-owned company.

A Cabinet meeting took the decision to appoint Acharya as MD today. Acharya, who has studied chartered accountancy, is the first MD at Nepal Telecom who is from a non-engineering field. He was also the senior-most deputy managing director of the company and was appointed as officiating MD by the government on July 13.

All previous MDs — Sugat Ratna Kansakar, Amar Nath Singh, Bishwa Nath Goel and Anup Ranjan Bhattarai — were from the engineering field. NT officials said that the appointment of a full MD will benefit the company as Acharya now holds the authority to make crucial decisions for long-term planning.

Before Acharya, Bhattarai was appointed the MD as a stopgap measure after Singh’s retirement. Normally, an MD is appointed for a two-year term; however, due to political interference, there is always a new face at NT’s helm whenever there is a change in government or minister at the Ministry of Information and Communications.

“Since it is the responsibility of the Public Enterprises Directive Board (PEDB) to appoint chiefs at government enterprises through free competition, Acharya is also like a stopgap measure,” said an official at the Ministry of Information and Communications. Employee unions of NT had also been demanding a full-term MD instead of an officiating one, citing that the company had to work effectively amid the growing competition.

A case regarding the appointment of chiefs of public enterprises (PEs) is sub-judice at the Supreme Court. Going by the government set rules, PEDB has to appoint chiefs of state-owned enterprises like NT, Nepal Electricity Authority, Nepal Oil Corporation, Citizen Investment Trust and Dairy Development Corporation through free competition.

However, the board has stopped work relating to the appointment process of PE chiefs after the apex court, on September 5 last year, issued an interim order. The stay was issued in response to a writ petition, which seeks the government to appoint chiefs of government enterprises as in the past rather than through free competition.

Source: THT