The preliminary report on the five DDCs reveals the Local Development Officers (LDOs) there crossed the line and doled out a lot more financial assistance than what they are permitted to by the Local Development Act. As per the Act, LDOs in the DDCs can only distribute Rs 100,000 as financial assistance in a given fiscal year. However, Rupandehi DDC alone distributed about Rs 2 million in financial assistance. Interestingly, most of the money was given to party organizations. Similarly, under the financial assistance head, Surkhet DDC distributed Rs 700,000 while Kaski and Banke DDCs gave away Rs 300,000 each.
This misuse of funds in the DDCs is an indication of how things are at the country’s local level. With the government of the day focused primarily on power politics, the state of affairs there has gone from bad to worse. The LDOs, or for that matter most officers there, expend almost all their energy on proving their allegiance to ‘their’ respective parties as is evident from how they bypassed the Local Development Act to shower party organizations with funds. When funds allotted purely for development work is so blatantly misused, it would be nothing but foolishness to expect any sign of progress in our villages, towns and cities.
MoLD has already suspended an LDO following the report while it has sent out letters to five others to furnish clarifications. According to the ministry, if the LDOs fail to provide a satisfactory explanation, appropriate action would be taken against them. While punishing the corrupt is important, much more needs to be done if we are to witness a dramatic change in how things function in the overall government machinery. This includes, among other things, relying more on merit than political affiliations when selecting government officials and providing proper incentives to government servants while, at the same time, ensuring that those found guilty are meted out the strictest punishment. Unless we introduce and adhere to such a carrot-and-stick policy, even a miniscule change in how things function in our government offices – both at the central and the local level – would be too much to expect.
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