Headless NTB resumes efforts to appoint chief

The Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has resumed efforts to appoint its chief after a 16-month hiatus.

Following orders from the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) to the NTB board issued two weeks ago to honour the Supreme Court’s decision issued in September last year, the board is likely to call a meeting on March 8 to proceed with the chief executive officer (CEO) selection.

According to Dhurba Narayan Shrestha, one of the board members of the NTB representing the private sector, the OAG has ordered the board to honour the apex court’s decision to include him and Rewat Bahadur Thapa in the CEO selection subcommittee.

Among five board members from the private sector, three of them had appealed to the Tourism Ministry that they were not clear on the court decision. They had asked the ministry to sort things out by seeking the court’s advice as the dispute had escalated. The ministry had then requested the court to clear the confusion.

The NTB has suffered several setbacks in its efforts to appoint a new boss due to a dispute among the private sector representatives.

On Jan 4, 2012, the government sent away Shrestha and Thapa 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 apex court ordered the NTB to reinstate Shrestha and Thapa in the board and the CEO selection subcommittee following their appeal. After the orders, Kakshapati and Shahi were out of the board of directors.

However, a tussle started to flare up among the sitting members when the stalled CEO selection process was moved ahead. The reinstated members Shrestha and Thapa asked the board to name a third member to the CEO selection subcommittee. As per the NTB’s rules, a three-member subcommittee has to be formed to select the CEO.

As the other sitting members Sherpa, Sapkota and Dhamala were seeking their majority presence in the subcommittee, they knocked on the ministry’s doors stating that they were not clear on the court’s decision—whether to appoint both or one of the two reinstated by the court. The new members wanted two of its members on the subcommittee. 

Following the OAG’s order, the NTB board conducted four rounds of meetings this week but failed to reach any concrete decisions. The next meeting has been called on March 8. “Differences still persist among the board members,” said an NTB official.

“A conflict of interest among the private sector representatives has virtually paralyzed the board, which in the past year used to be a playground to fulfil political interests.” However, Shrestha is optimistic that the process will run smoothly this time.

“Thapa and I have even proposed that other groups appoint three independent specialists who will appoint the CEO after we recommend the names of prospective candidates,” Shrestha said. “The idea is to make the selection process more transparent, but they have declined our proposal,” he added.

Earlier, the 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. The board had short-listed 12 candidates for the CEO’s post.

As the NTB has been stumbling along without its head, travel trade entrepreneurs blamed that international promotional activities had been hampered seriously.

They said that the government and the NTB officials had no clue about the reason behind falling tourist arrivals in Nepal.

Tourist arrivals via air dropped 7.3 percent in October last year, and growth slowed down significant in November and December last year. To add to the industry’s woes, arrivals shrunk 15.9 percent to 35,330 in January 2013. Arrivals from the major source markets—China and India—plunged 40.3 percent and 26.1 percent, respectively.

However, the NTB’s budget jumped to Rs 580 million this fiscal year from Rs 388 million in the last fiscal due to increased arrivals in 2011 that continued till September last year. The board had proposed a budget of Rs 616 million, but it was revised downward.

source:The Kathmandu post,20 Feb 2013