Defense Minister Bidhya Bhandari, on December 22 last year, decided to form the taskforce, which has been mandated to submit a draft “Working Procedures and Directives” for the army fund, review and revisit the present status of the fund and recommend depositing the money in safer financial institutions, all within two months of the taskforce being formed.[break]
The eight-member taskforce comprises five members from the government and three from the NA. While those representing the government are the defense accounts controller -- who is also coordinator to the mechanism, a joint-secretary at the National Security Council, an under-secretary, and the legal and accounts officers at the Ministry of Defense, NA has to send one representative each from the Directorate of Welfare Schemes, the Planning Directorate and the Legal Department.
A knowledgeable government source conceded that NA has not sent its three representatives so far and added, the taskforce will not be able to fulfill its mandate within a given timeframe due to the army´s lack of cooperation.
“The inclination of the NA not to send its three representatives indicates that it is not ready to cooperate, fearing that a real picture of the fund might emerge,” the source told Republica.
A highly-placed source at the MoD said Minister Bhandari has recently returned from her India visit and discussions will be held with her regarding the issue.
Amid claims of irregularities at the fund, the Office of the Auditor General (AG) has also specifically pointed to non-transparency in its annual report on the fund. The fund (as per the AG office) has currently swelled to Rs 18 billion.
Although Welfare Fund Regulations have a provision that NA can incur expenditures only from the interest received against the fund deposit, the AG report found that NA had flouted this by overspending about Rs 300 million.
Likewise, the AG office has also pointed out lack of transparency in the reimbursement process from the UN, deposit transactions, collection of interest and selection of financial institutions to deposit the fund amount.
NA Spokesperson Brigadier General Ramindra Chhetri, upon our making an initial telephone contact, said he would find out about the matter and give his comment. However, later on, he was not available on the phone despite repeated attempts by Republica.
Meanwhile, a sub-committee of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday issued directives to NA to accomplish the task of drafting the working procedures and directives for the welfare fund within three months.
NA, on the occasion, assured PAC members that such a taskforce has been formed and it would prepare the draft within the given timeframe.
The fund is accumulated by deducting a maximum of 22 percent per person per month from the allowances received from UN peacekeeping missions. Each person deputed on such missions generally draws a monthly allowance of US$ 1,025. Likewise, NA deducts 5 percent per person per month from military observers.
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