Pushing MoF to release unbudgeted amounts is nothing but asking it to violate financial laws and norms. Despite that, Lok Darshan Regmi, joint secretary at the Budget Division of MoF, said he is now dealing with more than 1,200 such files.[break]
Interestingly, many of those files, generated by the general public, teachers, development workers and other stakeholders, have enclosed in them fund release orders issued by senior cabinet ministers.
“We have not totaled the amounts of those requests, but we´re sure it runs into millions of rupee,” said another MoF official, adding that MoF was presently received an unnaturally high number of requests for extra-budgetary support. Most of them were backed by other influential ministries.
On Wednesday, Republica found Prof. Govinda Prasad Upadhyaya, principal of Om College in Rautahat, queuing up in front of the Budget Division, carrying a file enclosing a fund release order from Minister for Local Development (MoLD) Top Bahadur Rayamajhi.
The order written under the MoLD letter head wanted MoF to disburse to Upadhaya the funds he was seeking for constructing a new college building.
“The total construction will cost Rs 30 million. But I have sought only Rs 5 million for now,” he told Republica. He is hopeful of getting the funds as a senior minister of the present government has himself formally written for the fund release.
However, if financial governance laws are anything to go by, his aspirations will simply not be met. Why?
First, his program - no matter how sound it might be - does not featured in the annual budget. Secondly, this is not a budget formulation period for MoF when it coordinates with the Ministry of Education (Upadhyaya´s request is related to education) to arrange finances.
Thirdly, Minister Rayamajhi, who wrote to MoF with the fund release order, is not the education minister.
It´s not that the minister who issued the letter did not know these facts. Except for programs incorporated in the budget and assistance provided by the cabinet, existing laws and the PM´s own order restrict any doling out of support to any person or program.
If individuals like Upadhyaya -- who say they are seeking funds for a noble cause -- are really serious, they can always get their programs included in the budget by mobilizing the leaders of their constituencies at the time of budget formulation. That is the most appropriate time and method for securing state support, and MoF officials have told this to Upadhyaya as well.
But Upadhyaya said he does not believe their words. Instead, he tagged it an effort by the ministry to ditch his request. “If releasing of funds is not possible at this time in the fiscal year, why would a responsible person like Minister Rayamajhi issue the order?” he asked.
Upadhyaya is not alone in perceiving the situation in this light. As the leaders made false promises instead of speaking truthfully, a good 100 people are presently approaching MoF every day to ´follow up´ on what has happened to their requests.
“This is costing them dear both in terms of time and money,” said Regmi. Worse still, such false promises are unnecessarily generating frustration among a general public that sincerely believes in their leaders. “But it seems our leaders are simply not bothered about this,” Regmi added.
This state of affairs at MoF, meanwhile, has pushed the ministry into a bizarre position.
On one hand, it is making all possible effort but failing to give momentum to much-needed development spending. On the other, ministries that are apathetic toward executing priority projects are eagerly pushing it to dole out money to unaccounted-for programs, something that will only siphon away scarce resources.
Related story
The CIAA has failed us
_20230226123652.jpg)
