KATHMANDU, April 19: The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) did not submit the details of around Rs 10 million spent in travel by two teams led by the then minister Gopal Man Shreshta and then secretary Shanta Bahadur Shrestha respectively.
According to a recent report published by the Office of Auditor General (OAG), a 19-member team and a 10-member team including former minister Shrestha and secretary Shrestha visited Hong Kong and Australia and the visit expenses were covered by the Skill Development Project. The two teams had spent a total of Rs 9.963 million in the visits. However, the ministry did not include the details of the visit and its expenses in its accounts. "The report submitted by the ministry is incomplete," the OAG report says.
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The ministry has broken the rules by not providing details of the visit, according to the OAG report. "Moreover, the achievements including knowledge and skills gained from the foreign visit were not evaluated," the report mentions.
Travel Expenses Regulation 2007 (2064 BS) (14) provisions that the details of the government officials visiting foreign countries, their objectives, sources of expenses and bearer of expenses should be recorded in a designated format.
The OAG report mentions that the ministry has not maintained all necessary details of 203 foreign visits to 23 countries by 189 government officials and employees in the year 2017/18 (2074BS).
