PE chief appointments put on hold

KATHMANDU, JAN 24 -

The Public Enterprises Board (PEB) has not been able to start the appointment process of the chiefs of state-owned corporations for the last five months as the Supreme Court has not given a final verdict on the writ filed against its authority.

The evaluation of the

candidates applying for the post of the heads of Agriculture Inputs Company, National Seeds Company, Timber Corporation and Herbs Production and Processing Company has been delayed. Similarly, the PEB has not been able to issue vacancy notices for a number of other PEs which remain headless.

Besides these four PEs, the top post at Hetauda Cement, Udayapur Cement and Citizen Investment Trust has remained vacant.

Although the government has named Anup Ranjan Bhattarai as managing director of Nepal Telecom, he will keep the post only until the PEB makes an official appointment through free competition.

“Many PEs are operating without a boss with the appointment process being held up,” said PEB Chairman Bimal Wagle. “An early decision from the court would be helpful in filling the vacant positions.”

It has been around eight months since Agriculture Inputs Company has been without a chief. Similarly, the top post in three other PEs, for which the selection of candidates began before the court stopped the process on Sept 5, 2013, lies vacant.

The PEB was formed in 2011 through a government order to select chiefs of public enterprises through free competition in a bid to prevent political intervention in them as has happened when political appointments were made. Political intervention has been blamed for many PEs turning belly up.

Source: The Kathmandu Post