NTA starts fresh bid to appoint board member

KATHMANDU:

The Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) is preparing to appoint a new member in the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) Board through a fresh procedure. It has called a vacancy notice for the third time in this regard.

In a bid to appoint a new member, MoIC called the third notice on August 4, cancelling the previous two notices. The second notice was challenged at the Supreme Court (SC) and an interim order was also issued, after which MoIC had scrapped the previous preparations. The final verdict regarding the case is yet to be issued.

According to MoIC, even as the case is subjudice, it started a new process by cancelling the previous preparations based on suggestions from legal professionals, including the attorney general. “We have received around 10 applications,” said Suman Prasad Sharma, secretary of MoIC.

The application submission date closed on Wednesday.

During the first vacancy notice, there were only three applicants and in the second time, the procedure had been halted following the SC order. MoIC had called a new vacancy notice removing a criterion questioned in the SC. Advocate Ratna Kumar Kharel had filed a case in the SC arguing that MoIC called a notice specifying working field of ‘market management’ going against the set provision in the telecommunication law.

This time, even as there is no specific field mentioned, applications were called from candidates having seven years of

‘professional/managerial’ working experience with at least bachelor level of educational qualification. Submission of a vision paper identifying problems of telecom sector and their solutions was also one of the requirements for the applicants.

“Since the post has been vacant for a long time, we want to appoint a new member soon,” said Sharma. As per the existing provision regarding appointment of NTA chairman and members, the Cabinet will make appointments on the basis of recommendations from MoIC.

NTA shall consist of five members including the chairman, who are qualified and experienced, as prescribed in the technical and administrative, market management, accounts and

auditing or legal field relating to the telecommunications service, as per the Telecommunication Act 1997. However, with a case related to appointment of chairman also under consideration at the Supreme Court, currently there are only three members on the board.

NTA officials said that although the three members have the right to hold board meetings, they have not been able to take most of the pending decisions because most of the times one or the other member is absent. The board requires the presence of at least three members in the meeting because of the need to have majority voting power.

Source: THT