Unplanned expenditure

Resisting political pressure in fiscal allocation has always been a problem in Nepal and it has led to compromise in fiscal prudence. But this time around the problem seems to have grown at an alarming rate and bureaucrats at the ministry have begun to complain. According to reports, 25 lawmakers on average visit the finance ministry everyday and put pressure to allocate funds to the projects in their home districts and constituencies. It’s heartening to know that the lawmakers do care about their constituencies and feel the need to speak up for the people they represent. We also completely understand the need for the lawmakers to lobby for more resources to their districts and constituencies—in fact that’s their responsibility. That’s also the best way to maintain an organic connection to the people they represent.



But that’s just one side of the coin. The lawmakers must understand that there is a thin line between lobbying for more allocation of resources in their constituencies and interfering with fiscal prudence. If budgetary allocation is made just on the basis of what politicians vouch for, it will compromise efficiency, feasibility, accountability, monitoring and implementation of projects.



When the projects are selected on the basis of political connection, such projects are neither owned by people on the ground nor do bureaucrats on the top show enthusiasm to implement them. Result: The projects hardly take off, and even if they do, they are seldom completed on time or with efficiency. It’s precisely because of these reasons that such pork barrel projects fail to yield intended results.



Our politicians must learn lessons from our past experience or from the experience of others and they must follow rules, regulations and mechanisms put in place because there is a certain rationale and wisdom behind it. For instance, for any development project to receive allocations, the recommendation must come from the line ministries to the National Planning Commission (NPC), which in turn, decides the merit of the project and refers it to the finance ministry. But there are reports that lawmakers are thronging the finance ministry requesting budget allocations to the projects which have not gone through any kind of screening or feasibility study from a competent authority. Not only lawmakers but finance ministers have also acted irresponsibly. Hardly a month into the office, Finance Minister Surendra Pandey has already sanctioned non-budgetary expenses of over 350 million rupees and former Finance Minister Dr Baburam Bhattrai spent over one billion rupees from outside the budget.



Development is a much more complicated process than just allocation of resources. Our politicians should, therefore, learn to resist the temptation of allocating funds in a haphazard manner and to follow due processes to maximize output of our development expenditures.

Related story

Unplanned road construction a big threat to Baitadi