Civil Engineer becomes new NEA Chief

The government has rewarded a civil engineer for tipping off alleged corruption in road contract of Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP) by appointing him to the post of Managing Director of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).

Harish Chandra Shah, a civil engineer of department of Roads has been appointed for the post replacing Janak Lal Karmacharya by a cabinet decision of last Thursday and was sworn in on Sunday.

Karmacharya has been transferred to the power sector reform unit of the Ministry of Water Resources seven months earlier his tenure expires.

Shah, who has no prior experience in hydropower sector, now heads NEA that relies almost 90 percent on hydropower.

Shah's name featured in media after his report to the Royal Commission for Corruption Control (RCCC) on a case related to financial irregularties in a road contract of MWSP.

The Kathmandu Post quoted him as saying that he had given RCCC his observation on the case as he was involved in an earlier investigation team of National Vigilance Centre formed by the then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to investigate alleged financial irregularities in the case.

"I had submitted a report to the then Chief Secretary, when Deuba was prime minister that there could have been irregularities, and that further investigation was required. RCCC asked my opinion on the case by virtue of my involvement in the past investigation," Shah said.

Other senior employees of the NEA expressed dissatisfaction over Shah's appointment as he did not have experience of the power sector. Regarding his experience in hydropower he said, "That does not disqualify me for the post. This is a managerial post. The basic thing about hydropower is contract administration and procurement works, I have plenty of experience in those," according to The Kathmandu Post Daily.

The controversial RCCC formed to look after the corruption related cases following the February 1 royal takeover jailed former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and the then Minister for Physical Planning and Works Prakash Man Singh along with others and slapped heavy fines on them citing irregularities in the project notwithstanding the report of Asian Development Bank that there was no irregularity in awarding the contract. nepalneews.com Nov 01 05