The Finance Ministry has done an unpardonable disbursement of the scarce national resource. It has decided to give Rs one million each to 330 ex-Members of the Legislative Parliament. Some of the ex-MLPs have been re-elected in the present Legislative Constituent Assembly and will continue till the life of the LCA. But most of the ex-MLPs have been defeated in the LCA election. In the political connotation they do not represent any people any more. Not all of them represented the people in the first place because they were nominated by their parties. Even those, who were elected in the earlier election, had lost the people's trust in the recent election. In both the cases, the disbursement is unjustified.
First of all, the very policy of distributing Rs one million to an MLP to be spent at his discretion is not justified. A democratic country runs through the wishes of the people. In matters of development, the people's wish is the prime factor. The discretion of the leader is not compatible with the concept of democratic governance. In the second place, Nepal followed a policy of decentralized governance, where the local bodies make all the development decisions. The concept of distributing money through the MLP creates a chasm or a polarization between the local bodies and the national level MLP. It is not proper to superimpose the MLP over the local body like the village development committee, the urban municipality and the district development committee.
In the third place, the earlier decision to disburse the money was stopped at the behest of the Supreme Court, wherein it was stated that the money at the hands of the MLPs would be a factor of influencing the voters in their favor vis-à-vis other elector competitors. At that time, at least some of the MLPs (by no means all MLPs) could be considered people's representatives because of their past electoral victory. The court had made a moral link to the money factor. At this new instance, most of the MLPs have lost their popular touch. The Finance Ministry has gone ahead without consulting the court. The tenure of the LP was terminal with the official institutionalization of the LCA. Granting money after the termination of their official status of people's representatives is constitutionally illegitimate and morally repugnant.
In the fourth place, the timing of the disbursement is untenable with all the financial procedures. The annual budget comes to a close on the twentyfifth of Ashar. The money is being disbursed with the condition that it should be spent in just five days after disbursement, with all the financial procedures met and the development work done. (If development were so easy and the leaders so efficient, Nepal would have turned into a paradise in the last two years of the interim rule!)
In the fifth place, the intention behind the disbursal is immoral. It is intended to appease the leaders who could not get the popular support. That is the overt attempt. The covert intention is even more sinister. The Finance Minister belongs to the party that lost the most seats. This appeasement would, therefore, benefit the candidates of that party in the utmost.
The present political situation is the most sensitive in the history of Nepal. The two and a half century old monarchy is just gone, but the future set-up is yet to take up a shape. The parties that were responsible for the removal of the monarchy are in the war path among themselves. The Nepali Congress is finding it hard to digest that the people have not trusted it in the hustings. The CPN-Maoists have been the largest party but the not so large parties in the hung legislative CA are trying to invent one alibi or the other to prevent the largest party from taking over power. The CPN-Maoists are not finding it easy to compromise their principle of hegemony with the other parties without whose co-operation the coalition is not going to succeed. Newly emerged groups and parties are claiming more than their share of popular trust. The CA has not been allowed to function because of this inflated boast.
In the above circumstances, all the efforts should have been directed towards making the present set up work. But the Finance Ministry is depleting the scarce resource on an unnecessary and immoral practice of bribing the untrusted leaders. What was the need? It was done in a desperation at the very end of the fiscal year. Not even seven days are saved for spending the money when the normal time would have required at least seven months to fulfill the demands of honest work to spend the money in accordance with the financial regulations. There is no money for many more urgent needs of the country. The government has raised credits from various sources to fill this need off and on. The government is going to need much more in the two years ahead because the strength of the inflated legislature even for their regular salary and perks.
The present disbursement is 330 million rupees, not a small amount for our financial strength. In the case of the LCA it is going to be a whopping Rs 601 million. Apart from the size of the money, the priority is wrong. The present disbursement is wholly deplorable for obvious reasons, some of them explained above. It is immoral. It is illegal. It is totally unwarranted. No tax payer will tolerate it. No sensible citizen will tolerate it. The outgoing finance Minister is not authorized to disburse it. The PM is not authorized. The outgoing cabinet is not authorized. The country is supposed to be run on moral principles. One of the moral principles is that the executive is accountable towards the legislature. When the legislature is gone, to whom will the executive remain accountable? The whole thing is a sham. It is shameful.This is out right robbery. It is naked corruption. It must not be allowed.
The priority before the LCA is the drafting of the new constitution and it should remain the top and the only agenda. The members of the LCA will have no time to indulge in any other work during their to year term. So, the practice of disbursing the development aid to them should be put to a moratorium for this period. The present case should be an eye opener. Let us not let the leaders loot the country. IF the present disbursement is effected at this hour, it should be recovered from the finance minister, the prime minister and the cabinet members remaining in the saddle today. This should be the first lesson of collective accountability.
The author can be reached at: knsad1@gmail.com
Related Posts:
Act Responsibly!
http://nepaliperspectives.blogspot.com/2008/04/act-responsibly.html
CA Election: Compromised Beginning, Flawed Process and Ominous
http://nepaliperspectives.blogspot.com/2008/03/ca-election-compromised-beginning.html
3 comments:
The only accountability issue here is about writing such nonsense about the peoples' representatives. "Collective accountability" in Nepal? Is this guy completely nuts?
Just because it's not there, does that mean that everyone should sit on their fat asseses and not try to drive the accountability?
Drive "the accountability"? Yah, yah, good one. So keep driving.
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