Now, the central bank

Failure to appoint a competent governor on time is an indictment of Oli’s government leadership.

Continuing on its course of making one after another egregious mistake in governance, the KP Sharma Oli government has now needlessly complicated the appointment process of the new Nepal Rastra Bank governor. The central bank has been run by an acting head since Maha Prasad Adhikari’s retirement on March 5. The bank’s Act envisions that the vital institution should have its top official at all times. To prevent a void, section 25 of the Act states that the process of appointment of the new governor should be initiated a month ahead of retirement of the incumbent. But the prime minister seems unbothered by such legal niceties. In the middle of March, the government formed a recommendation committee under the leadership of the finance minister, as mandated by the Act. But the three-member panel couldn’t sit even once. Frustrated, former governor Bijaya Nath Bhattarai, one of its members, resigned on Tuesday.