August 5: The government is preparing to appoint Kulman Ghising as the executive director of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba summoned Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Pampha Bhusal to Baluwatar earlier this week and asked her to expedite the process of appointing Kulman as the NEA chief, according to the Prime Minister's Secretariat.

Following the directive of Prime Minister Deuba, Minister Bhusal has even started the 'process' to appoint Ghising as the executive director of NEA. In an introductory program with reporters a few days ago, Energy Minister Bhusal said that she was the sixth energy minister from the Maoist party and would continue the good work done by the previous ministers. In this regard, she had expressed her intention to form a team that would do a good job in the energy sector.

Accordingly, it has been learnt that Kulman Ghising was her priority. She also expressed her dissatisfaction with the current leadership of the Electricity Authority. Within hours of the Prime Minister's directive, Energy Minister Bhusal summoned the current NEA Executive Director Hitendra Dev Shakya on Tuesday and instructed him to resign.

According to a source at the Prime Minister's Office, it has been reported that the revenue of NEA has declined ever since Hitendra Dev Shakya held the responsibility of the NEA chief. There were reports of increase in unauthorized power cuts and power leakages. Minister Bhusal has already asked Shakya to resign. But, NEA Executive Director Shakya has refused to resign so far. Bhusal had demanded Shakya's resignation due to his poor performance. However, as per the sources, Shakya refused to resign saying that he has been appointed for a period of 4 years.

Shakya, who has been the acting executive director since 11 November 2020, was appointed as the executive director by the then KP Sharma Oli-led government on 8 February 2021. Ghising, who was in charge of NEA before Shakya, had ended load shedding of 18 hours a day.

As Ghising took over the Nepal Electricity Authority, which had been running at a loss continuously, a profit of Rs 11 billion was reported in the fiscal year 2076/77. Ghising, who was appointed as the executive director on September 14, 2016, had made a profit of Rs 5 billion from the accumulated deficit of Rs 34 billion during his tenure. Ghising's term ended on 13 September 2020.

Despite calls for Ghising to be re-appointed as NEA's executive director, then-Prime Minister Oli did not show "interest" in this matter. The then energy minister, Barsaman Pun, had lobbied for Ghising’s reappointment, but his attempt was unsuccessful. About five months after the end of Ghising's tenure, the government had appointed Hitendra Dev Shakya as the Executive Director of NEA.

Shakya was directly appointed by the Council of Ministers. Ghising was appointed through a competition. Ghising was appointed by the government after a three-day notice was issued by the then Energy Minister Janardan Sharma to nominate Madhu Bhetwal, Kulman Ghising and Navin Singh to the cabinet.

 

Can the cabinet remove the current head?

Although the latest amendment to the Nepal Electricity Authority Act in 2075 BS does not mention that appointments should be made through competition, the government can dismiss Shakya even if he refuses to resign. The amended act states, "The chief executive will be appointed by the Government of Nepal." According to sources at the Ministry of Energy, Ghising was once selected from the competition and his tenure has been successful. Thus, this time, he can be appointed directly by dismissing Shakya. A few days ago, an agreement was reached between the five-party coalition to remove all political appointments made by the previous government.

As the then government directly appointed Shakya, the government could remove him on the basis of the decision of the cabinet meeting, said a source close to the energy minister.