KATHMANDU, March 10: Managing Director of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) Kulman Ghising has submitted a detailed explanation to the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation regarding his performance.
Ghising gave a detailed reply on Sunday after the ministry directed him to come up clean within three days as per the decision of the Council of Ministers on March 5.
As the ministry demanded explanation on why the agreement between Ghising and the ministry on his appointment and appointment itself should not be canceled standing on the Section 10.3 of the contract agreement, Ghising has presented various legal, procedural and factual grounds for not revoking the agreement and his appointment.
Ghising has claimed that NEA has met the performance target set for the last few fiscal years. According to him, the score of 94.23 points in the fiscal year 2021/22, 98.94 points in 2022/23 and 98.99 points in 2023/24 are the basis to evaluate his performance in the past four years.
Stating that the performance evaluation was carried out within the month of Magh in the past, he said that the process should be fair and based on facts.
“Evaluation should be done after the performance report is submitted and the achievements cannot be evaluated with bias as they are verified from the records,” he stated in the clarification.
Ghising said he was not aware of any formal committee formed to evaluate the performance. The statement read, “According to clauses 10.4 and 10.5 of the agreement, there is a legal provision to give an opportunity for hearing if there is dissatisfaction in the performance evaluation, but the ministry has not given me that opportunity.”
He claimed that if the recommendation to cancel the agreement and appointment is made without following the process of hearing, it will be against the principles of natural law.
He argued that the time for submitting the performance report has not been fixed in the agreement, and cited the precedent of evaluation being done even though the report was submitted late after informing the ministry.
The ministry has accused Ghising of not fulfilling the responsibilities of his post by signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) finalised by the Indo-Nepal Power Exchange Committee (PEC) meeting.
The question was raised over why Ghising should not be removed from the post as per bye-rule 22 (a) of the NEA Regulations, 2061 BS (with amendments).
Responding to this, Ghising said that since 1992, NEA's managing directors have been attending the PEC meeting and advisor to the Energy Minister Prabal Adhikari has also participated in various fiscal years.
“The Indo-Nepal Power Exchange Committee meeting was also held in the fiscal years 2016-17, 2017-18, 2022-23 and 2023-24. However, it appears to be biased to recommend action only by raising the issues of 2024-25 and 2025-26,” he said in the clarification.
Ghising argued that the ministry did not give him an opportunity to be heard, tried to take decisions against the principles of natural justice and the agreement and appointment should not be canceled without completing the process.