Madhav Government Not For Rule Of Law

The Madhav government does not follow the rule of law. It has been using the decisions of the Council of Ministers to run the administration rather than follow the rule of law. So, a lot of complaints have been lodged against the decisions made by the Council of Ministers and he by the ministries.

For example, a group of joint-secretaries have lodged a complaint against Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Sharad Singh Bhandari and the secretary to the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry Pramod Kumar Karki at the office of the Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority (CIAA) for proposing to transfer Karki from the current ministry to the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation going against the law that prohibits to transfer the person working under the judiciary group to the position of the civil service group according to the news posted on Myrepublica.com on June 2, 2010.

Prime Minister Madhav Nepal needs to learn a moral lesson from legislator Bishendra Paswan. Speaking to the reporters, legislator Bishendra Paswan has said that he no longer thinks that he deserves to keep the allowances he received for completing the writing of a new constitution for two years, as the Constituent Assembly (CA) has failed to do so on May 28, 2010: the deadline set for promulgating a new constitution. He sent a check for 120,700 rupees to the parliamentary secretariat on June 01, 2010. Legislator Paswan is the leader of the Dalit Janajati Party. It is hard to believe that Prime Minister Madhav Nepal will follow the legislator Bishendra Paswan’s deeds rather the greedy Prime Minister would insist on receiving the claims he has sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs without appropriate receipts for the expenditures he with his family members has made during the climate-change summit held in Copenhagen in December 2009.

“The security forces have been lobbying with certain arm supplying groups while purchasing arms and ammunition and the logistics violating the Public Procurement Act, 2007 and Regulation 2008,” a high-ranking official of the Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority (CIAA) told ‘The Himalayan Times’ on June 06, 2010 according to the Thehimalayantimes.com. So, CIAA has directed the Nepal Police to maintain transparency in purchasing arms, ammunition and other logistics required for the security. The CIAA has charged the Nepal Police and Armed Police Force with evading the regular bidding process for procuring arms and ammunition calling for ‘No Objection Certificate’. CIAA has no jurisdiction over the Nepal Army; so, it has not issued any directives to the Nepal Army.

The current Madhav government has failed in implementing development projects. Even his Finance Minister Surendra Pandey has been concerned very much with not spending the budget allocated to the development projects. Speaking at the program held to discuss the budget for the fiscal year 2010 in Birgunj, Finance Minister Pandey has said that only 50 percent of grant and 70 percent of loan of the total development budget of Rs 103 billion allocated from the external sources have been spent so far according to the news posted on myrepublica.com on June 06, 2010.

On May 30, 2010, National Trading Limited (NTL) with the approval of the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS) has prepared to give its land area of about 12,000 square meters (25 ropanis) at Singh Durbar in Kathmandu to Infinite Infrastructure (P) Ltd on a 33-year lease to build a 15-storied commercial center building. Finding NTL has not followed the rule of law for making the land deal with the Infinite Infrastructure (P) Ltd, the legislative Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has directed the MoCS and NTL to annul the land deal according to the news posted on Myrepublica.com on June 11, 2010. They have made the deal on May 30, 2010. Following the deal, the Infinite Infrastructure (P) Ltd will pay Rs 510 million to NTL for the 33-year lease. One of the PAC members has found that the NTL has not received the permission from the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works for constructing a 15-storied building at the Singh Durbar.

On June 10, 2010, CIAA has asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoAC) to annul its decision on giving 301 stalls at the Kalimati Fruit and Vegetable Market on a 15-year lease not following the Public Procurement Act of 2006 (2063) and Competition Promotion Act of 2006 (2063) according to the nepalnews.com. The ministry has amended the rules under the Public Competition Promotion and Market Act of 2006 to make the deal look like legal.

On June 11, 2010, CIAA has stopped the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) to pay Rs. 60 million to the Korean construction company called Sambu Construction: the contractor constructing the extension of the International terminal building, operation airlines complex and car park at the International Airport in Kathmandu according to the nepalnews.com. CIAA has said that the CAAN has already paid Rs. 1.20 billion to the Sambu Construction for expanding the International terminal building, operation airlines complex and car park at the International Airport in Kathmandu. The Sambu construction has demanded additional Rs. 160 million from the CAAN as a compensation for the delays in the construction caused by the technical problems and shutdowns.

The Transparency International has shown that Nepal has moved down in the global corruption index indicating the increase in corruption according to the news posted on the myrepublica.com on June 11, 2010. Nepal was in the 138th position in 2008 but it moved down to the 143rd position out of 180 countries in 2009. Nepal became the most corrupt nation in the South Asia.

Financial irregularities in printing of plus-two exam answer sheets might run as high as Rs 3.5 million at the Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB) but the parent organization Ministry of Education (MOE) has kept quiet; so, the legislative Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has instructed the MOE to submit its report on the financial irregularities within 10 days. In addition, the PAC decided to interrogate the concerned officials such as the Printing Chief and Controller of the Accounts at HSEB on Friday morning, June 11, 2010. The PAC has decided to interrogate the officials to check whether the contract of the printing has been awarded following the process of the rule of law or not according to the state-run newspaper ‘The Rising Nepal’ of June 11, 2010.

Not following the rule of law, Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has successfully increased the corruption and abuse of authority in running the administration, consequently causing a great loss of revenue on one hand and misuse of revenue on the other hand. So, most of the development activities have been paralyzed by the administration.

June 13, 2010

The Madhav government has shown that it does not need to follow the rule of law. Following the recommendation of the legislators belonging to the ruling political parties, the Madhav government has decided to distribute Rs 720 million to various projects just a month before the fiscal year ends according to the news posted on nepalnews.com on June 14, 2010.

The Nepalese fiscal year ends on July 15, 2010. Even the money the government has released to the projects would be frozen after the end of the fiscal year. They cannot use the leftover money. They need to get new money from the Ministry of Finance in the new fiscal yea.

However, the Madhav government has decided to release Rs 720 million to various projects just one month before the end of the fiscal year, During a remaining month of the ongoing fiscal year 2010, none of the projects would be able to use the money following the rule of law, as bidding for any work of more than one million rupees is required one month time; fifteen days for any work less than a million rupees worth of job.

June 14, 2010