By Sunil KC

The Oli government’s dogged pursuit to remove Kulman Ghising from the position of Managing Director of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) could be much more than just a personal feud or the clash of egos and to waive the billions of rupees outstanding on several industries. The real motive might be more sinister- controlling NEA, several hydropower projects on the pipeline and power purchase agreements worth hundreds of billion rupees that might bring massive kickbacks and commissions.

When repeated notices of clarification failed to break or cower Ghising, Minister for Energy Deepak Khadka took the matter to the cabinet and the cabinet meeting last Wednesday decided to demand yet another three-day explanation accusing him of being incompetent and overstepping his authority while making power-purchase agreement with India. The Ministry even gave him a blank in the last fiscal year’s performance report.

Ghising, in return, submitted a 16-page response defending his position and his performance saying the attempt by the government and the minister to oust him was ill-intentioned and an act of vendetta and the government attempt to waive billions of rupees to the defaulting industries. The score of zero in the performance report does not hold any ground as Ghising’s performance evaluation by the ministry was 94 percent and 98 percent in the last two fiscal years. The irony is the Oli government’s performance evaluation for the last six months was under 30 with Oli himself getting 28 per cent and all his ministers receiving less than 20.

When the cabinet itself sought clarification raised a commotion in the House of Representatives with the opposition parties mainly CPN-Maoist Centre, Rastriya Swatantra Party and Rastriya Prajatantra Party vehemently opposing the government’s latest move to kick Ghising out. The opposition parties clearly warned the government that any attempt to remove Ghising before his term expires in about five months would be strongly confronted both in the parliament and outside.

Oli began chasing Ghising from the first day he took the high seat of the government. He wanted to remove Ghising allegedly under pressure from almost 34 industries that had been refusing to pay the outstanding amounting to tens of billion rupees for using electricity round the clock through dedicated and trunk lines when the country was facing crippling power outages for up to 18 hours a day.

However, the country’s power sector made a turnaround under Ghising’s stewardship at the NEA. It will not be an overstatement that with astute management such as bringing the leakage down from almost 24 per cent to a manageable 12 percent and bringing in energy generated from different projects and the private sector into the national grid, the load-shedding was gradually reduced. For the general populace and small businesses, power outages are now a thing of the past. The NEA was suffering from a whopping loss of more than 35 billion rupees eight years ago is now the country’s largest profit-making public entity. Last year, NEA made an impressive profit of more than 80 billion rupees. The country is even now a net energy exporter to India as well as to Bangladesh earning the country billions of rupees. But the minister in a shameless manner to belittle Ghising said in the parliament last week that the credit of ending the load-shedding should go to India for providing Nepal with 425-MW electricity rather than Ghising or the NEA leadership.

What is intriguing is that the Nepali Congress has remained largely mum on the whole issue except for a few meek voices. Thus, it is not difficult to guess that the Nepali Congress, another partner in the coalition, is complicit in the whole affair of attempting to remove Ghising. The Nepali Congress members who used to shout for attention on allegations of corruption and fraud against other parties are surprisingly quiet, uttering timid and docile words at the most. When all other public corporations and public entities are on the verge of financial collapse due to corruption, mismanagement, and bribery, the NEA is the only one making massive surpluses and with more energy projects on the pipelines worth hundreds of billions of rupees making it a goldmine for those in power seeking massive kickbacks and commissions.

Some of the projects mulled by NEA for the production and purchase of energy include the purchase of 960-MW energy from private solar energy producers. The NEA has chosen 64 companies to make the purchase. Those companies will have to make a power-purchase agreement with the NEA for a period of the 25-year period. Similarly, the NEA every year invites tenders worth tens of billion rupees for the production, transmission and distribution of energy that could bring in mouthwatering amounts in commission and kickbacks.

Similarly, the NEA is also planning several big projects under its headship such as the Upper Arun Project with 1063-MW capacity and Dudhkoshi Project with 670-MW capacity. The costs of these projects run into hundreds of billion rupees. There are also other projects like the 1902-MW Mugu-Karnali hydropower project and 454-MW Kimathangka-Arun project with NEA commanding a majority share.

So, there is no doubt that there is big money, amounting to hundreds of billion rupees, in play and Oli government and Minister Khadka are in haste to have its men in control of NEA and the massive wealth it has generated as well as the future projects whose budget run into hundreds of billion rupees. It is obvious that the Minister and the government take Ghising as an obstacle in their apparent nefarious intention as he did not comply with Oli’s pressure, but rather remained defiant, to supply electricity to those defaulting industries. So, the government wants a yes-man who would obey its instructions and wishes on this and future projects.

Even the appointment of Deepak Khadka, who already had charges of fraud against him, to the plum Ministry of Energy, Hydropower and Irrigations, was dubious. He is also said to have some investment in the hydropower sector which suggests a conflict of interest. Oli, when he was in the opposition, had publicly chastised him for being a fraudster. Again, the reason of the Nepali Congress, read Sher Bahadur Deuba, nominating a person with an allegation of fraud raises questions about his intentions.

In the last thirty years, successive governments of all parties have dragged public corporations and entities to the ground or bankrupted them either by selling or by mismanagement, corruption, and nepotism. When NEA was in loss, they did not care much, but now it has made massive strides and is in profit, it will not be wrong to doubt the present government’s intention to use NEA for personal and partisan gains and in the interest of unscrupulous interest groups turning NEA into another failed public enterprise.