NTB gives marching orders to its chief
KATHMANDU, OCT 31 -
The 196th board meeting of the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) held on Thursday has suspended Subash Nirola from the posts of officiating CEO and director with immediate effect. He has been charged with misusing millions of rupees in tax money.
Thursday’s meeting chaired by Tourism Secretary Suresh Man Shrestha has appointed Nandani Lahe Thapa, a senior NTB director, as the officiating CEO . The meeting also named Sudarshan Prasad Dhakal, the director general of the Department of Immigration, as a member-secretary in the NTB board.
“In accordance with the ministry-level decision on October 28 to take immediate action against graft-accused Nirola, we called a board meeting on Thursday to sack him,” said Shrestha. The board meeting was held at the ministry.
On October 22, the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had directed the ministry to suspend Nirola. He has been removed from the post as per NTB Regulation 2055 Rule 12 and sub-rule (5) and the NTB Act’s clause 14 (4).
Irregularities resulting in the loss of millions of rupees have been revealed in an investigation report submitted by a seven-member government panel to the ministry.
A copy of the report has also been sent to the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) which is also scrutinising the matter. The report stated that the country’s tourism promotion body was wracked by policy and financial corruption.
For example, the NTB allocates Rs 605,000 annually for legal consultancy services, but the actual expense amounts to more than Rs 3.68 million. Likewise, the NTB earmarks Rs 500,000 for auditing but the payment shown is Rs 4 million. NTB officials have been found to have submitted fake restaurant bills to inflate the expenses under the outstanding revenue heading.
Similarly, the money collected by issuing Trekkers’ Information Management System cards has been used arbitrarily. The probe panel uncovered hundreds of cases of misappropriation of funds.
As the NTB has not been able to perform its duties well and all the activities at the country’s tourism promotional body have come to a grinding halt, the ministry
responded to the situation promptly, Shrestha said.
He added that the ministry was committed to resuming the process of selecting the CEO in a fair and transparent manner. The NTB has been stumbling along without its head since the then CEO Prachanda Man Shrestha’s tenure expired on October 31, 2011. Twelve candidates had been short listed for the post.
The PAC has also told the ministry to urge the CIAA to begin legal proceedings against former NTB chairman Sushil Ghimire and the board of directors who have been charged with abetting corruption.
The board had amended its financial bylaws to allow it to award contracts without competitive bidding even though the Public Procurement Act (PPA) says tenders should be called before doing so.
Under the amendments to the Financial Bylaws that give sweeping powers to the NTB boss to dispense cash, the CEO can spend up to Rs 10 million at a time for tourism promotion activities inside the country.
Similarly, the chief can spend $400,000 at a time outside the country without following any due process of the PPA. The CEO has also been given the power to spend up to $400,000 at a time through honorary representatives and firms.
The bylaws also allow the CEO to purchase goods on a piecemeal basis and appoint the internal auditor of the board. The NTB board consists of 11 members, five representing the government and five from the private sector. The tourism secretary chairs the board.
Meanwhile, the ministry has formed another committee to further investigate NTB matters. The three-member panel is headed by Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, the director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
