KTM News

KATHMANDU, JAN 09 -

Five persons including officiating managing director Suresh Kumar Agrawal have been shortlisted for the vacant post of managing director of Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC).

A four-member selection committee headed by National Planning Commission vice-chairman Dipendra Bahadur Kshetri has selected Bachhu Ram Kafle, Lok Bahadur Khadka, Dilli Dhoj Karki, Binod Aryal and Agrawal. A total of 11 candidates had applied for the top NOC post. This is the first time that the government is appointing the managing director through free competition.

Among the candidates, Karki is currently deputy general manager of National Trading while Aryal is a board member of Beema Samiti, and Khadka is general manager of Central Dairy Cooperative Association. Kafle is an old NOC hand who has served as its deputy managing director.

According to Deepak Subedi, spokesperson at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS), the five candidates were selected on the basis of their experience and educational qualification.

According to the MoCS, a prospective managing director should have 10 years of work experience as a manager or executive in a private or government enterprise, and possess at least a Master’s degree in commerce, public administration, law or engineering. 

The shortlisted candidates have to pass three tests—writing a proposal regarding their vision to improve the state-owned oil monopoly, presenting it and interview. The selection committee will recommend three names based on the performance during the presentation and interview. “Minister for Commerce and Supply Lekh Raj Bhatta will recommend these three names to the cabinet which will select one for the top job.”

The post of managing director post has remained vacant since the government moved Digambar Jha out of NOC on Aug 12, 2011.

The MoCS said that the process of selecting the NOC’s new boss was being done as per the recommendation of the High-Level Petroleum Sector Reform Taskforce. The taskforce had suggested that the chief should be appointed through free competition, ending a long-standing tradition of political appointment.