The last cabinet meeting decided to transfer Mainali to the Water and Energy Commission Secretariat from the Ministry of Local Development (MoLD). [break]
It has been disclosed that Secretary Mainali flatly refused to dole out Rs 550 million under "Local Development Programs based on People´s Participation" and Rs 250 million under MoLD. He claimed that doling out the amounts would be illegal.
Mainali admitted that he was subjected to extreme pressure by Prime Minister Nepal (now caretaker), Ministers Purna Kumar Sherma and Rakam Chemjong and State Minister Ganesh Khadka to release the amounts and take other controversial decisions.
"I had been receiving intense pressure from the prime minister and other ministers. I feel that Prime Minister Nepal and other ministers were biased against me," Mainali said to myrepublica.com, adding, "But I would never deviate under any kind of intervention. I would never compromise professional norms and my integrity."
He also expressed dissatisfaction over the last minute decision of the cabinet to transfer him. "The prime minister should have transferred me at least one week before he quit office if he had to transfer me by way of taking action," he said adding, "The last cabinet meeting´s decision is controversial."
Minister Sherma denied that he was biased against Secretary Mainali. "It is the government´s right to transfer a secretary," Sherma said, adding, "The government can transfer civil servants as per its need."
- PM, Ministers Sherma, Chemjong, Khadka, CA members pressed him to dole out Rs 800m from state coffers
- Mainali flatly refused, citing legal provision
- Mainali transferred after refusal to dole out Rs 250m
- MoLD Sec Gyawali signed document to dole out Rs 250m
When asked about his direct intervention in the bureaucracy, Sherma argued that Mainali´s transfer is a start to the removal of dual secretaries from the ministries.
According to Mainali, he refused to dole out Rs 550 million, pointing out that the ´Working procedure on local development programs based on people´s participation-2066´ does not allow him to do so.
The procedure allows a secretary to distribute amounts only at the recommendation of the committee authorized for budget distribution by mid-June 2010. But Mainali was pressured to dole out the amounts after the mid-June deadline.
Nearly one dozen ministers and dozens of Constituent Assembly (CA) members had been pressuring Mainali to distribute budgets even after the deadline.
Mainali´s stance not to illegally distribute amounts under pressure was backed by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA). Mainali also came under pressure to dole out Rs 250 million from MoLD as sought by ministers and CA members after their first attempt to have him dole out Rs 550 million was blocked by a CIAA decision.
Minister Sherma, State Minister Khadka and Minister Chemjong bargained with Mainali to dole out Rs 250 million to their districts. Again Mainali flatly refused.
Mainali was threatened by Sherma and Khadka with possible transfer nearly two weeks ago, before he left for Brazil.
According to MoLD officials, the ministers approached another secretary at the ministry, Krishna Gyawali, to sign the document to release Rs 250 million in the absence of Mainali.
According to a source at the Ministry of Finance (MoF), MoLD has already submitted a document seeking approval for doling out Rs 250 million as sought by the ministers in the caretaker government. The document is signed by Gwayali.
Sherma admitted taking Secretary Gyawali´s help to sort things out at the last moment.
CA members of the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Madhes-based parties had submitted papers before Secretary Mainali asking him to release budgets for their respective District Development Committee (DDCs).
Mainali also disclosed that he was pressured by most CA members during a meeting called by the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee.
The budgets doled out during the last two years were largely misused.
MoLD´s recent investigations at various DDCs found that millions have been embezzled.
Within the past two years, then finance minister Babu Ram Bhattarai doled out Rs 1.12 billion while incumbent Finance Minister Surendra Pandey has doled out Rs 1.14 billion, under the direct recommendation of CA members.
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