KATHMANDU, Dec 19: Important works on hydropower development have been affected as the board of directors of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has not held its meeting in the past four months.
In the past, the board generally used to sit at least twice a week. This has affected the process of finalizing tender notices, evaluating tenders, and singing project contracts of different projects including Solu corridor and Koshi corridor transmission line projects.
A highly placed official of NEA said project managers of almost all the undergoing projects are awaiting the board decisions to expedite their projects.
At a time when the government has put hydropower development in high priority, the inertness of NEA is quite surprising.
The official said the NEA board is not convening because of its decision to select an Indian contractor to build Solu Corridor Transmission Line. The selection brewed controversy, leading to removal of erstwhile Minister of Energy Radha Gyawali on the direction of Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).
The board meeting of NEA led by Gyawali had, on August 27, selected the Indian firm, which had quoted Rs 270 million higher than the other bidders, to develop the project. Other four board members, including NEA's Managing Director Mukesh Raj Kafle, who is member secretary of the board, were also involved in the act, according to CIAA.
Kafle was subsequently removed from the post and the government appointed Ramchandra Pandey as acting managing director. But Kafle filed a writ petition against the decision, and returned to NEA following a court order.
At present, both Kafle and Pandey are performing the role of managing director separately. The energy ministry has thrown its weight behind Pandey.
But it hasn't initiated any action against Kafle.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Bamdev Gautam, who looked after the energy ministry after Gyawali was removed from the post, appointed energy secretary as the chairman of NEA's board, few days before the new government was formed under KP Sharma Oli on October 11.
Energy Secretary Rajendra Kishor Kshatri could not call board meeting as Kafle was refusing to follow the ministry's order. Kshatri was transferred to the Office of the Vice President two weeks ago. The new energy secretary Suman Prasad Sharma has yet to call NEA's board meeting.
Talking to Republica, Sharma said he was taking legal advice to settle the controversy. He also assured that NEA will organize its board meeting at the earliest.
As per CIAA's instruction, the ministry had sacked three board members Manoj Kumar Mishra, Laxman Agrawal and Suraj Lamichhane. Mishra and Agrawal have also got an interim order against the decision. An interim order has also been issued against the decision to sack Lamichhane.
NEA's inaction for nearly one-third of the current fiscal year has also affected day to day works of the power utility. Even preparations to procure household electricity meters and transformers have been affected. NEA might have to face serious trouble in the future as its stock of transformer is fast depleting due to increasing incidents of transformers catching fire because of system overload. Similarly, its electrification drive could be affected in the lack of household electricity meters.
Gokarna Raj Panth, assistant spokesperson of the energy ministry, works of Chamelia and Kulekhani III hydropower projects have been severely affected. “NEA board needs to make important decisions on direction of Public Accounts Committee to stop any payments to the civil contractor of Chamelia project,” Panth said.
Similarly, the board also needs to take action against a Chinese firm which has not done anything despite securing contract for electromechanical works of Kulekhani III project. Both projects are expected to start generation by next October.
Panth said NEA's budget and programs for 2015/16 have been approved only recently because of NEA's inaction.
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