By Dan Oakes
THE Government has appointed corporate headhunter Egon Zehnder to find a board for the company that will run the $43 billion national broadband network.
The move comes amid rising criticism from industry insiders over the perceived slow pace in the search for a board, and questions about the progress of the selection of a lead adviser for the NBN implementation study.
Egon Zehnder, which Telstra recently employed to find its new chief executive, will be paid $79,000 to recommend board members for the government-controlled company, which has been unofficially christened NBNCo.
It has been more than two months since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy dropped a bombshell by revealing that the Government had rejected every tender for the NBN and would instead take a majority stake in the nationwide fibre-to-the-home network.
Sources say there has been division between bureaucrats and politicians over what type of chairman the NBNCo requires, with bureaucrats favouring the likes of Paul Twomey, a former government adviser and now chief executive of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers.
Some politicians have indicated a preference for a more business-oriented chairman, such as former Optus CEO and Packer family adviser Chris Anderson, or former Telstra executive Doug Campbell.
Progress in the search for a lead adviser for the implementation study is also under a cloud, with the contenders still waiting to be asked to tender for the job despite the deadline for requests for tender officially being today.
The three main candidates are a group comprising McKinsey, KPMG and AT Kearney, a pairing of Deloitte and elements of the failed Acacia NBN bid, and a bid headed by Boston Consulting.
Several members of the expert panel that recommended a fibre-to-the-home network to the Government are associated with bids.
A source connected with one of the bids said there was "confusion, not concern" about the timetable of the process, but the source also referred to the Government's demonstrated willingness to turn processes on their heads when it came to the NBN.
Several observers have also questioned why the implementation study is going ahead before a board, chairman and chief executive of NBNCo have been appointed.
One source critical of the process said: "Surely if you were on the board, you'd want to be given some say as to who does the study, and how?"