-KATHMANDU, Jan 26: The government has transferred Maheswor Neupane, secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, after he denied appointing Joint Secretary Tourism Ministry Suresh Acharya as Director General to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CANN) by dismissing incumbent DG Sanjiv Gautam.
Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Jitendra Dev had repeatedly ordered Neupane to prepare a proposal on dismissing Gautam at the direction of Deputy Prime Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachchhadar.
Govt employees being transferred haphazardly
Neupane was transferred after he denied preparing the proposal. The Cabinet has decided to transfer Secretary Neupane to Public Procurement Monitoring Office and induct Secretary Krishna Devkota in Neupane’s place.
“Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Maheshwar Neupane has been transferred to the Public Procurement Monitoring Office (PPMO) and PPMO Secretary Krishna Devkota has been inducted in Neupane’s place,” Minister for Information and Communications Mohan Bahadur Basnet told Republica Online.
Earlier, Devkota had prepared a proposal seeking due action against then Nepal Oil Corporation Managing Director Gopal Khadka after he was accused of misappropriating billions of rupees in the procurement of land plots to build petroleum storage facilities. Devkota was the secretary at the Ministry of Supplies then.
At a cabinet meeting held recently, Minister Dev had vented his ire complaining that chief secretary and secretary disobeyed him even on minor issues such as transfer and promotion of employees.
