NTB board fails to agree on CEO selection, yet again
KATHMANDU, MAR 09 -
The Nepal Tourism Board’s (NTB) effort to appoint a chief executive has once again failed, with Friday’s board meeting failing to muster consensus to proceed ahead with the chief executive officer (CEO) selection process.
The next board meeting has been scheduled for March 29. The last meeting was held in mid-February.
NTB sources said persistent ideological polarisation among the board of directors representing the private sector was the major reason behind NTB remaining headless for the last 17 months.
Travel trade entrepreneurs have been criticising their representatives, saying the tussles among them have virtually affected tourism promotional activities. “We were unable to reach a conclusion in Friday’s meeting to form a CEO selection committee,” said Dhurba Narayan Shrestha, one of the board members representing the private sector. “Dispute still persists among us,” he admitted. A senior NTB official said are “no symptoms” of a CEO being selected under the current board members’ consent.
Private sector representatives on the NTB board are divided into two panels — one including Shrestha and Rewat Bahadur Thapa, and the other including Pumpha Dhamala, Phur Gyalzen Sherpa, Tikaram Sapkota. “Both the panels have their own agendas to appoint their nearest and closest to the CEO post,” a source said.
As these two panels want their respective candidates in the top NTB post, they want their majority in the CEO selection sub-committee. As a result, the process has not moved ahead, the source added. As per the NTB’s rules, a three-member subcommittee has to be formed to select the CEO. The previous NTB board had shortlisted 12 candidates for the post.
The NTB board has endorsed the annual budget of Rs 580 million for this fiscal year (up from last year’s budget of Rs 388 million), but spending the amount requires the CEO’s nod for NTB being a CEO-led body. “As a result, NTB has not launched any new projects and programmes this fiscal year and is continuing the same promotional activities of the past,” said the official.
Some officials said, the autonomous body — modelled as a partnership between the government and the private sector — will be in more trouble when two board members’ — Shrestha and Thapa — tenure will expire. Their tenure will expire after 8-9 months.
“As NTB has to first fill its five-member board after their retirement, we are not sure when the NTB will get its CEO,” the source said. Earlier, the CEO selection process had stalled after the terms of three of the five board members — Ganesh Simkhada, Nimi Sherpa and Agni Kadel — expired on Nov 30, 2011.
After the retirement of Simkhada, Sherpa, and Kadel, the government on Jan 4, 2012, also relieved Shrestha and Thapa of their duties and appointed Pumpha Dhamala, Phur Gyalzen Sherpa, Tikaram Sapkota, Amar Bahadur Shahi and Shyam Sundar Lal Kakshapati as NTB board members from the private sector.Subsequently, the Supreme Court ordered the NTB to reinstate Shrestha and Thapa on the NTB board and in the CEO selection subcommittee. After the orders, Kakshapati and Shahi were out of the board.
Among the five board members from the private sector, three had appealed to the Tourism Ministry that they were not clear about the court decision as to whether to appoint both or one of the two reinstated by the court.
They had asked the ministry to sort things out by seeking the court’s advice. The ministry had then requested the court to clear the confusion. The Office of the Attorney General then ordered the NTB board to honour the apex court decision to include Shrestha and Thapa in the CEO selection subcommittee.
“All the board members are clear about the court’s decision. There is no reason why they are at odds,” the NTB source added.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
