The Nepal Securities Board has started an audit of the IT sector from software to hardware used in Nepal’s capital market.
After frequent complaints about the software and hardware being used in the stock market, the board said that it has started auditing the entire IT. The board has given this responsibility to Saroj Lamichhane, who is working in the IT sector. Lamichhane has also worked in various government agencies related to IT. Based on that experience, the board has given the responsibility to Lamichhane. Lamichhane has been appointed by the board as an IT consultant for one year. The committee chaired by Lamichhane is examining the software and hardware currently being used in the stock market. Recently, Lamichhane’s team is examining the software and hardware being used by Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE). A NEPSE official confirmed that the team has been active in NEPSE’s IT department for a few days.
Investors have been alleging that the company that makes the software of NEPSE’s online system, the company that makes the Trade Management System (TMS) run by the broker company, and the data center of the broker companies are also the same company. The entire online work of NEPSE is being done by Vaiko. It is said that the board system itself has reached a point of needing to be audited after complaints were made that monopolies and non-transparency were seen as all the work was done by the same company.
I entrusted Saroj Lamichhane, one of the very best IT experts in Nepal, to see that we had to have that expertise to look at NEPCO’s IT system, TMS system, and the system of all the brokers. He is an expert from Vieti System Check to Audit. He is a man studying in London. He has been providing IT services to the Government of Nepal in many areas. He is very expert in what we need to do. Therefore, he has been hired as an advisor to the Securities Board for one year and entrusted with system audit. They have already started the work. We are hiring him to bring transparency in technology as well,” Securities Board Chairman Ramesh Hamal told Mero Investments.
The board did not want to say anything about what to do after the report from the system audit. What happens first? Hamal says that what to do will come only after the report of that investigation.
There have been accusations of leaking information about NEPSE’s business even before this. Complaints have been filed in the authority that even people from the IT department of NEPSE misused the data of NEPSE. Even though NEPSE has officially taken over the online service, the system of NEPSE is still being run by Wico under the name of AMC. Although there is an IT department in NEPSE, the work of NEPSE’s online system is not done by that department.