Shree Krishna Nepal, joint secretary at the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives, Federal Affairs, and General Administration, has retired from the civil service.
Nepal, who was recommended for promotion to the post of secretary for the second time on Monday, retired from the civil service the following day after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 58.
On Monday, the Secretary Promotion Recommendation Committee recommended the names of three senior joint secretaries, placing Nepal first on the list. Narayan Prasad Bhatta was placed second, while Binod Bahadur Kunwar was recommended third.
Had the Cabinet decided to promote Nepal to secretary, the decision would have had to be made before his retirement on Monday. However, as no such decision was taken, he retired from the post of joint secretary.
Nepal had previously also been recommended for promotion to secretary. When a previously suspended promotion process resumed on August 13, he was recommended in third position. At that time, Kamal Prasad Bhattarai was ranked first and Indu Ghimire second.
After Bhattarai was promoted to secretary, another recommendation was made for the vacant position, with Indu Ghimire ranked first, Nepal second, and Narayan Prasad Bhatta third.
After the Cabinet promoted Ghimire to secretary on August 28, Nepal moved to the top position based on seniority. He was subsequently ranked first in the latest recommendation for the vacant post.
Nepal was promoted to joint secretary on February 12, 2015. After becoming a joint secretary, he worked for some time at the Ministry of Health and Population before spending most of his career in that position at the Ministry of Finance.
At the Finance Ministry, he served as head of the International Economic Assistance Coordination Division and later headed the Budget and Program Division.
Since becoming a joint secretary in 2015, Nepal’s primary area of work had largely been at the Finance Ministry, where he worked on coordinating with international development partners and managing government budgets.
On January 20, 2025, Nepal was nominated as an alternate executive director at the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He subsequently moved to Manila and assumed his responsibilities at the ADB headquarters.
He remained in Manila until mid-August of last year before returning to Nepal.
As Nepal was approaching the mandatory retirement age while serving at the ADB, he was required to return to Nepal. In the second week of August, he was transferred from the Finance Ministry to the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration.
After Nepal left for the ADB, Dhaniram Sharma took over the responsibilities of the Finance Ministry’s then International Relations Division.
In the past, it had been common practice to assign the ADB position to the joint secretary overseeing that division. However, Nepal was appointed to the ADB role while serving as head of the Budget and Program Division.
