'Budget was on web before presentation in House'

KATHMANDU, Aug 11: The parliamentary panel formed to investigate into the leakage of the contents of annual budget to media prior to presenting it in parliament has said that the leakage has violated the sanctity of parliament.



A report released by the panel on Wednesday said the text of the annual budget was uploaded on the Finance Ministry’s website a day before presentation and that stayed on the website for two hours.[break]



The report states that journalists obtained full text of the budget a day prior to its presentation in parliament.



The panel has recommended that the ministry should maintain information in organized manner so that they could be made easily available at the time of need.



The panel has also recommended that the government, the finance ministry, parliament and all the political parties make a commitment not to repeat such a mistake in the future. The panel has also recommended that government formulate a guideline for preparing the draft budget and bring it into effect by Mid-February.



The report also suggested to the government to hand out the printed texts of the budget to lawmakers only after the finance minister finishes presentation in parliament.

Related story

South Sudan lawmakers quit budget presentation over unpaid publ...