Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, December 31
Rabble
culture has continued to dictate local bodies for more than a decade owing to
the vacuum of elected representatives. However, neither the government nor the
political parties dared to adopt the democratic discipline to hold local body
elections despite their hollow buzzes to ensure good governance in the local
bodies.
Everyone,
who believes in democracy and election system to choose their leaders for the
development and transformation of society, is compelled to think that there is
no democracy in Nepal. On the one hand, legislative body is defunct; on the
other hand, the local bodies are deprived of local government elected by them,
of them and for them. “People can only experience the existence of government
for service delivery if there is elected bodies in the local level,” said former
chief secretary Bimal Koirala. “Democracy is not a gift given by elites. People
in local level should realize and entertain it fully,” he added.
TIMELINE 2012
January 6: All-party mechanism in local body dissolved after order from CIAA and local body employees assigned to work in place of elected body.
May 14: Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD) was shifted to Singh Durbar premises from Harihar Bhawan, Lalitpur.
July 16: Donor funded first phase of LGCDP ended.
August 26: 18 local body officials of Dhanusha suspended for three months for gobbling up Rs 300M.
November 7: Supreme Court ordered the government to hold local body elections.
December 2: Eight local body officials of Saptari suspended for three months misusing Rs 300M.
Koirala
further said that neither the legitimized central government nor the local
government were in democratic order in Nepal. “Present situation is no more
than the state of mock democracy instead of functional democracy,” he said. “It
is only lifeless democracy that has weakened governance system, issuing licence
to involve in corruption.”
The
Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD) has been huffing and
puffing to rule the local bodies by assigning the civil servants and local body
employees, claiming to ensure service delivery to the people. However, the
misuse of development funds has increased rampantly in the involvement of the
political parties, government officials including VDC secretaries and local body
employees in the local level.
In
the recent years, the government has allocated some Rs 45 billion, including
about Rs 15 billion from the foreign aids, for the MoFALD every year.
Additionally, the government allocates a huge amount for the local bodies
through the Ministry of Health and Population, the Ministry of Education and
the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction.
The
local bodies constituted are 75 districts, 3,915 village development committees
(VDC) and 58 municipalities throughout the country. Apart from their local
resources, a VDC gets at least Rs three million to five million from the
government yearly.
The
donor countries have raised a serious concern about the misuse of development
funds in the local bodies. They will be happy only if the elected body
functions in the local bodies, said the government officials.
Senior
officials at the MoFALD revealed that the donor countries and development
partners were more interested in carrying out development activities themselves
in the local bodies but not through the government bodies. “They want to invest
assistance directly in the local bodies because they are worried about
corruption of the development funds in the local bodies,” they said.
Though
the elected government cannot end the corruption in the local bodies, they
certainly can check and minimize risk, said Laxman Pandey programme officer at the
National Association of VDCs in Nepal. “The elected representatives will be
more responsible towards people. At this time no one is there to take
responsibility and accountability,” Koirala added.
The
cadres of political parties are playing foul against laws in local bodies while
forming users committees to plan and use development budget and programmes.
This
is more pathetic to reveal that the planning system in the local bodies is just
opposite of the decentralization policy. The plans are imposed from centre to
bottom instead of bottom to top. Even a single meeting of Decentralisation
Implementation Monitoring Committee headed by Prime Minister could not be held
throughout the year. It should take place at least once in each three months.
The
government officials admit that two third of the fiscal budget has not been
used properly though the amount is spent on any development head and activity.
A study carried out by a team comprising of former chief secretary Bimal
Koirala indicated to a similar finding.
It is
a general rule in the democracy that people should be given opportunity to
elect their representatives in each four to five years so as to establish
culture of fresh mandate. The local body election was held 15 years ago in the
country last time. The political parties and government officials blame on the
transitional period and restructuring of local bodies based on federalism for
failing to hold local body elections.
Structure of VDCs
(Based on Local-self Governance Act 1999)
Village Development Committee (13 Members) Village Council (13 + 36 + 4 = 53 Members) VDC Chair -1 Vice – chair - 1 Ward Chair - 9 Ward Members - 36 (Minimum 9 Women members) Nominated VDC Members 2 (Minimum 1 Women) Nominated Council Members - 4 (Minimum 1 Women)
“This
is a mere example of avoiding responsibility of establishing democratic
culture. Local body election never affects structuring the federal bodies. It
will certainly take time to write federal statute. If the statute is not
written for another four years, will it be reasonable not to hold local
elections?” Koirala wondered. “If the new constitution is written within two
years, it will definitely take at least four years to hold the next local body
election.”
Dhakal
argued that local body elections would certainly help contribute to writing new
federal constitution. “Only elected representatives can represent the voice of
people. The VDC secretaries are misusing their authority while issuing various
recommendations for citizenship certificate and passports and so on,” he said.
“Political parties are afraid of elections and showing unaccountability to hold
the local body elections.”
Shanta
Bahadur Shrestha, secretary at the MoFALD, said that they have faced series of
hurdles to execute development programmes and deliver services to the people efficiently
due to absence of elected representatives. “Though local body employees and
civil servants are working to fulfill the vacuum of elected representatives,
the role of accountability towards people could not be satisfactorily played.
Every activity of governance and service delivery has been affected,” he said.
“The ultimate solution to settle the problem is to hold local elections as soon
as possible,” he added.