Dev budget is reported misused in local bodies

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Lalitpur, October 29

In a bid to check corruption in the local bodies, the Ministry of Local Development (MoLD) has tabled a proposal to the cabinet to form a high level empowered monitoring body.

Minister for Local Development Purna Kumar Sherma Limbu said the ministry has been seriously working to check the activities in the local bodies after the people complained of irregularities and misuse of the development funds allocated for the local bodies. "We have taken this very seriously to make the monitoring effective in the local bodies," Minister Limbu told this scribe exclusively.

Though the monitoring bodies already exist in the central level, ministry and local bodies, they are frequently complained of not working actively and effectively, said Limbu. "So we felt an urgent need of active and effective mechanism to check such activities in the bodies," he said. "The quantity and quality of works, increasing unaudited budget, and inefficiency to take action against the guilty in the local bodies are frequently reported," he added.

"We submitted the proposal to the Office of the Council of Ministers on Monday," said Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, spokesperson for the MoLD. "We realised an immediate need of forming a powerful monitoring body to check the corruption in the local bodies," he added. "They prepare fake documents of spending money on development and misuse the fund badly."

According to the MoLD, a huge amount of budget is regularly sanctioned to the local bodies on the different heads and projects for the development. At least Rs 35 billion is disbursed for the local bodies throughout the country every year. Rs 1.69 billion is unaudited under the MoLD bodies at present.

Thapaliya said neither there was elected body nor the nominated all-party mechanism could work responsibly in the local bodies. "Now the committee headed by the MoLD secretary is proposed to carry out effective monitoring of such embezzlements," he said. "This mechanism will include representatives from the National Planning Commission, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Home Affairs and OCoM," he added.

Thapaliya said such mechanisms will be formed in the regional level and monitor all the 75 districts. "A team coordinated by joint-secretary comprising of experts will be assigned to the fields. It will consult with the political parties, civil society, beneficiaries and other stakeholders in course of monitoring," he said. "We will check income, expenditure, quality of works and overall management; and will recommend to the government for the immediate action against the guilty."

Nobody will escape the punishment if they are involved in the irregular activities, said Minister Limbu. "The committee will be approved once it is discussed on the cabinet and will be brought into effect immediately," he assured.