The eight-member task force formed as per a ministerial decision taken on December 22 has been asked to submit its report within two months.[break]
“The taskforce has been mandated to prepare working procedures for the welfare fund to prevent additional funds being exposed to financial risks emerging from possible collapse of deposit-taking institutions,” said a knowledgeable Nepal Army (NA) source asking not to be named. Besides,the mechanism will review and revisit the present status of the welfare fund.
The government has picked Defense Accounts Controller Dwarika Prasad Acharya, a government joint secretary, as the coordinator of the taskforce. Rajendra KC, under secretary at the Ministry of Defense (MoD), is member secretary of the mechanism.
Other members include Laxmi Prasad Gautam and Jaya Kumar Katwal, MoD legal and accounts officers respectively, and Chetnath Bhattarai, joint-secretary at the National Security Council.
Army headquarters has yet to depute three NA representatives to the taskforce. One officer each from the Directorate of Welfare Schemes, Planning Directorate and Legal Department, of the ranks of lieutenant colonel or colonel, will represent NA in the mechanism.
Despite NA´s repeated claims that it deposits welfare fund money in financial institutions only after thoroughly scrutinizing their financial status, over Rs 400 million from the fund is currently said to be at risk.
NA has deposited Rs 149.2 million in Nepal Sri Lanka Merchant Bank, Rs 60 million in United Development Bank and Rs 16 million in Samjhana Finance, but none of these financial institutions has been able to return the deposits to the welfare fund.
Interest earnings on deposits is one of the major sources of income for the fund. However, receiving interest has become far-fetched when even the principal is hard to recover.
“The fund´s money has been deposited in over 60 financial institutions. Who knows, the hard-earned money of servicemen may be at risk in other places as well,” said a major-general requesting anonymity.
About Rs 180 million from the fund deposited at Nepal Development Bank, which is undergoing a liquidation process, is also going to be difficult to recover.
The fund is accumulated by deducting a maximum of 22 percent per head per month from the allowances of NA personnel serving in UN peacekeeping missions. Each soldier deputed on such missions generally draws a monthly allowance of US$1,028. Likewise, NA deducts 5 percent per person per month from military observers and deposits the sum in the fund.
The current cash balance of the fund, both in local and foreign currency, stands at Rs 16 billion. NA is to receive four billion from the UN as reimbursements.
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