Himal Press 
Photo: RSS
KATHMANDU: The meeting of the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives was postponed on Sunday without taking a decision on whether to recommend action against Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) Managing Director Kulman Ghising.
The meeting was called to decide on the outstanding payments owed by industrialists to NEA for the consumption of electricity supplied through dedicated and trunk lines. However, the members were divided over a proposal to recommend the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) to investigate against Ghising.
Although Committee Chairperson Rishikesh Pokhrel attempted to announce the decisions, including referring the matter to the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) for investigation, strong opposition from CPN (Maoist Center) lawmakers forced him to postpone the meeting without taking any decision.
In the meeting, Pokhrel had proposed issuing directives to the NEA to recover Rs 21.88 billion in outstanding dues raised in the annual report of the Office of the Auditor General, and questioning why the 2019 recommendations of the previous Public Accounts Committee weren’t implemented, among other issues.
Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) lawmaker Manish Jha said the committee can not take any decision to overturn decisions made by the committee in its previous term. Even the lawmakers of the ruling Nepali Congress said they would not support the decision to refer Ghising to the CIAA for investigation. “The chairperson can’t announce decisions alone. We don’t support recommending action against the NEA Managing Director to the CIAA,” NC lawmaker Arjun Narsingh KC said.
Amanlal Modi and Lekhnath Dahal of the Maoist Center strongly opposed Chairperson Pokhrel’s attempt to force a decision.
UML lawmaker Basudev Ghimire, on the other hand, said the committee should take a decision to recover Rs 21.88 billion worth of outstanding dues within three months. His proposal received support from most of the lawmakers.
The UML has been calling for action against Ghising and seeking clarification from former Prime Minister and Maoist Center Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal regarding a previous government decision to waive off outstanding dues worth Rs 16 billion. UML lawmaker Yogesh Bhattarai proposed that the committee seek clarification from then Prime Minister Dahal and Energy Minister Shakti Bahadur Basnet.
