National coffer bleeding from foreign trips of ministers

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, June 15

A comparison between the foreign visits of present jumbo cabinet led-by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal in a year and Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’-led smaller cabinet in nine months shows that the government ministers don’t care about emptying national coffer.

According to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM), there are 43 members including PM, ministers, assistant and state ministers in the present cabinet while the Maoist-led government comprised of 24 ministers. The cabinet decisions reveal that the present cabinet ministers visited foreign countries 133 times from May 2009 to April 2010 and the Maoist-led ministers visited foreign countries 92 times from August 2008 to April 2009.

A record of the Finance Section at the OPMCM shows about Rs 4.45 million is spent on salaries for the present 43-member cabinet every month. The PM receives 306 litres of fuel; a minister gets 207 litres and a state minister is provided 180 litres per month. They are paid in cash instead of fuel.

Dhruba Prasad Sharma, secretary at the OPMCM, said that the expenses for each foreign visit varied on as per the size of the team, distance and number of days. A minister gets an allowance of US$ 200 every day excluding the bills of travel, food, treatment and accommodation, said Sharma.

Rs 1.2 million was spent on a minor treatment visit of Deputy Prime Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar to Singapore a few months ago. This ratio indicates a huge amount of national coffer is spent on the foreign visits.

The highest scorer in foreign visits stands then foreign minister Upendra Yadav with a total visits by 15 times in nine months. Another Maoist cabinet-member Ganesh Shah visited nine times while PM Prachanda six times; Ministers for Agriculture and Cooperatives, and Local Development six times each; Tourism and Civil Aviation five times; Health and Population, Culture and State Restructuring, Finance, Labour and Transport Management, Commerce and Supplies, General Administration and Education respectively four times each.

Other Maoist cabinet members include Information and Communication, Physical Planning and Works and Water resources for three times each; Youth and Sports, and Law, Justice and CA Affairs for two times each. Similarly, Ministers for Defence, Industry, Home Affairs, and Forestry and Land Conversation once each.

Similarly, present cabinet decisions include PM Nepal for four times; Agriculture and Cooperatives 11 times; Labour and Transport Management, and Foreign Affairs eight times each; Tourism and Civil Aviation, Energy, and Finance seven times each; Education, Forestry and Land Conservation, Home Affairs, Environment, and Federal Affairs, Constituent Assembly, Parliamentary Affairs and Culture six times each; Health and Population, Information and Communication, General Administration, Commerce and Supplies, Physical Planning and Works, and Youth and Sports five times each.

The Ministers for Industry and Local Development got four opportunities each; Ministries of Law and Justice, Peace and State Restructuring three times each while Ministers for Defence, Science and Technology, and Women, Children and Social Welfare two times each, and Minister for Without Portfolio one time.

The innumerable visits of parliamentarians, government officials including secretaries and head of other bodies outnumber the ministerial visits. If the achievement from the visits is counted, it is disappointing, conclude the senior government officials.