Kathmandu. Due to political interference, nepal’s insurance regulator is in danger of going the way of Bangladesh. Such a situation has been created when the political parties have reached the peak of political division in the selection of the leadership of the autonomous regulatory body Insurance Authority.
Especially when there is a coalition government in power, the authority’s weight is being eroded due to the competition to recruit its own people with the agreement between the ruling parties on the division.
The insurance sector in neighbouring Bangladesh is the most volatile in South Asia. The main reason for this is that the Insurance Development and Regulation Authority (IDRA), which has been hidden under the shadow of extreme political interference and politics. In Bangladesh, an insurance company has filed a complaint seeking action against the chairman of the insurance regulator for demanding bribe while granting permission to appoint the CEO of the insurance company.
Due to unnecessary interest and interference of the ruling party in Nepal, four new chairpersons have appeared in the Insurance Authority in a year. After Surya Prasad Silwal, incumbent civil servant Madan Kumar Dahal, ojha, who was said to have been appointed through so-called open competition, and now civil servant Sevantak Pokharel are again in the post of chairman of the NRA.
Silwal, a former chairman of the Nepal Insurance Authority, was suspended using the weapon of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) just a few months before the end of his term for falsifying details including date of birth. Silwal was suspended soon after the COMMISSION filed a case with the Special Court on December 15, 2017. Later, the special court acquitted him, but it was too late. He could not return to the office. Because the term was over.
Not only has it been established that the CIAA has failed in the investigation in Silwal’s case, but there is room to suspect that the case was filed on the basis of some prejudice.
If the CIAA was confident in its investigation and evidence, the way was open to appeal to the Supreme Court challenging the special court’s decision in silwal’s favor. However, the authority did not go to appeal. The appeal period has also expired.
The fact that silwal was removed from the post of chairman by prematurely removing him as part of the strategy of recruiting his own people could not be hidden for many days, when Sharad Ojha, who was considered ineligible, was appointed as the chairman by the council of ministers on February 15.
Ojha has been suspended from the post with the decision of the Council of Ministers on Monday, less than four months ago, due to increasing pressure to take legal action against him. In a short span of time, the NEA leadership has been repeatedly seen on the path of infamy. It is also necessary to investigate the members of the recommendation committee, including Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel, who recommended ojha as eligible.
As the top leadership of the regulator continues to be disputed or made, it is sure to affect the regular performance of the AUTHORITY. Ojha prepared a proposal to recruit a large number of employees without conducting an ONM survey before the supreme court dismissed the case and submitted it to the Finance Ministry. He was trying to recruit employees anyway before the court’s decision.
Challenging the approved ONM of the AUTHORITY as executive director Sushil Dev Subedi did not like it, Ojha envisioned a parallel executive director. Bypassing Subedi, he was asked to study the recruitment of employees and prepare a proposal through the junior employees of the secretariat.
If the leadership of the AUTHORITY remains unstable and incompetent people are brought forward in the leadership, then the entire insurance sector, which is in the sensitive responsibility of protecting the hard-earned income of the common people, will be in danger of being disturbed.
