Committee again to elect Chairman of Securities Board

According to the provisions of the Securities Act, a three-member recommendation committee will be formed under the coordination of the vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission for the selection of the chairman. It has provisions to have Finance Secretary as an ex-officio member and one independent expert member. According to the same arrangement, the government has decided to re-constitute the old committee (previously formed) with three members.

The government has not been able to appoint the Chairman of the Securities Board for six months due to lack of consensus among the ruling parties. For this reason, it was estimated that the government's coalition was also in trouble. Meanwhile, suddenly forming a new recommendation committee on Monday is seen as meaningful. Earlier, the government was in trouble as there was no agreement between the Maoists and the UML on the chairmanship of the board. It is assumed that the government has formed a recommendation committee to select the chairman immediately after the Maoist and UML agreed on the board chairman.

Last January, the government formed a recommendation committee under the coordination of National Planning Commission Vice Chairman Shrestha. Krishnahari Pushkar was the finance secretary when the committee was initially formed. Later, Madhukumar Marasini came as Finance Secretary, while Uday Niraula was an expert member from the beginning. Because the main parties could not agree on the chairman, the committee could not choose the chairman even for 6 months. According to the law, the committee was unable to recommend the names of three persons, and the selection process for the chairman was canceled last Friday. Three days after the cancellation of the process, the government again formed the recommendation committee. Now the committee will start the process from the beginning again. The

board has been leaderless for the past 6 months. After the term of outgoing president Ramesh Kumar Hamal ended on December 20, the post of president is vacant. Since last year, due to the absence of a chairman, the approval process for primary issue (IPO), additional issue process (FPO), bonds and other securities was stopped. However, last week the board has allowed two companies to issue securities. The

committee also called for applications last February. 19 people applied for it. A month after receiving the application, the recommendation committee shortlisted 5 people last March. At that time they were also called for the presentation of the work paper. But on the morning of the work paper presentation, it was informed that the selection process has been postponed. After that, there was no talk about the process of selecting the president for about two and a half months. Meanwhile, Parliament amended the Securities Act. In the amended act, it is mentioned that when there is no chairman on the board, the joint secretary representing the Ministry of Finance will play the role of chairman. According to this arrangement, Narendra Rana, joint secretary of the Ministry of Finance, has acted as the chairman of the board.

Earlier, the committee had selected five people in the short list, namely Krishna Bahadur Karki, Navraj Adhikari, Santosh Narayan Shrestha, Muktinath Shrestha and Chiranjeevi Chapagai. Among them, Karki, Adhikari and Chapagai did not participate in the action plan presentation and interview. As only two people participated in the interview, the recommendation committee could not recommend at least three people as per the law. The committee then sought a legal opinion from the Attorney General's office.

The opinion of the Attorney General also came that it should be done according to the law. Then, after the legal opinion from the Attorney General's office last Tuesday, two meetings of the recommendation committee were held on Wednesday. After the disagreement between three members in the first meeting, the second meeting was held in the evening.

In that meeting as well, Shrestha, the coordinator of the board chairman selection recommendation committee, and expert member Niraula expressed the opinion that let's recommend the five people who are on the short list, whoever the government appoints. However, after Finance Secretary and Recommendation Committee member Marasini included the shortlisted candidates in the action plan presentation and interview according to the Securities Act and Chairman Selection Procedure, the committee members argued that the names of five cannot be sent as it is mentioned that three people should be recommended.

A major cold war is raging between major trading houses for a new stock exchange. Under the influence of the business houses, the former chairman of the Securities Board, Ramesh Kumar Hamal, changed the policy and arranged that private limited companies can also invest in the stock exchange.

This is the reason why business houses are scrambling to get the license of the exchange in their hands. Sources claim that the leaders of the ruling main party are also in collusion in this process. Since there is a big financial manipulation in the license process of the new stock exchange and part of it has reached the leadership of the main party, they are in the strategy of not letting the board chairman be appointed until there is an environment to appoint their own people.

Meanwhile, a writ has been filed in the Supreme Court protesting against the cancellation of the Nepal Securities Board's chairman selection process. The presidential candidate Santosh Narayan Shrestha has filed a petition in the court on Monday, demanding the annulment of the decision to cancel the selection process. The Chairman Recommendation Committee of the Securities Board formed under the coordination of National Planning Commission Vice Chairman Meen Bahadur Shrestha issued a notice that the chairman selection process was canceled last Friday. Shrestha has filed a writ demanding that the cancellation of the selection process by the

committee should be allowed to continue as it is. If they are on the short list, three out of five people did not come, that is their matter. But they did not cancel the process of joining all the processes," said Santosh Narayan. "There was no mandatory provision to cancel the process for the recommendation committee. There is a provision in the Securities Act that at least three people should be recommended. The process was canceled last Friday after only two of the five people shortlisted by the recommendation committee joined the action plan presentation and interview.