NTB board members to hold meeting soon

Board members of Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) are set to hold another meeting on Friday to decide on the formation of a sub-committee.

Due to repeated failures in forming a sub-committee in any of the board meetings, NTB, publishing a general notice, had asked its board members to hold a meeting within this month to help select a chief executive officer.

Earlier, board members had planned to form a sub-committee by March 8. According to board members, the meeting is scheduled for March 29, which will decide about the sub-committee.

“I must be included in the sub-committee along with Rewat Bahadur Thapa among the three board members,” said a board member Dhurba Narayan Shrestha.

NTB has said that the last board meeting has already framed the criteria to select the chief executive officer. Due to lack of coordination among board members and repeated legal hassles, it was unable to start the selection process and appoint a CEO. NTB has been without a CEO for more than a year.

Due to the conflicting interests of representatives from the private sector, the board had repeatedly failed to organise its meeting, which was supposed to form a three-member sub-committee that would further move ahead with the CEO selection process.

According to the Supreme Court’s verdict, the selection committee must include Shrestha and Thapa and one other board member to start the CEO selection process. NTB consists of 11 board members — five each from the private and public sector as it was established as a public private partnership.

Representatives from the government are permanent members, while those from the private sector have a tenure of three years. Due to the internal tussle between the board members, there were a number of unnecessary obstructions, which has delayed selection process.

According to NTB board members, the selection committee should be allowed to work on its own without any political interference this time.

source: the Himalayan times, 28 March 2013