Organizing a press conference in the capital on Sunday, Insec Chairman Subodh Raj Pyakurel also alleged that WFP officials in Nepal have been acting as if they are doing a favor without acknowledging the fact that Nepal is also a member of the United Nations and it also has an equal say in the activities of the global body and its specialized agencies.
Pyakurel alleged that WFP officials in Nepal had been deliberately distributing sub-standard foods even as overseeing agencies in Nepal confirmed that the food being distributed was inedible. He cited an example that WFP continued with sub-standard food distribution in Majuwa Deurali of Gorkha even as representatives of various political parties on May 12 concluded that the food was not inedible.
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Speaking at the press conference organized in the wake of the WFP issuing a veiled threat to pull out from Nepal and repeatedly insisting that it had not distributed sub-standard food in Nepal, Pyakurel maintained that WFP in Nepal had not followed its own Food Safety and Quality Management System adopted on June 30, 2010. He also expressed surprise that WFP had not taken any action against its officials including the contractors for delivering sub-standard foods in Nepal.
Insec has maintained that WFP has not adhered to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness that emphasizes on ownership, harmonization, alignment, results and mutual accountability even as this is applicable to both donor countries and donor institutions. "Article 49 of this Declaration states that donors need to make available all information including budget spent in transparent manner. It is a known fact that WFP failed to provide related documents even when the parliamentary special committee demanded them in Banke district [in the past]," said the statement distributed.
WFP had drawn criticisms when it distributed sub-standard food in Jajarkot district back in August, 2009. Insec along with the National Human Rights Commission and Consumers' Rights Forum-Nepal had jointly published a report on it.
"If John Ging had indeed said what was reported in the media, he violated the code of conduct as UN official. And if the government is serious about the prestige of the country, it should immediately file a complaint against him," Pyakurel said.
Ging, who is the director of coordination and response division of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), had termed the media reports on WFP's food in Nepal as 'nonsense' and issued veiled threats that WFP may pull its support from Nepal, during a press conference on Wednesday.
Although a separate probe by a parliamentary panel and the National Human Rights Commission found that the food distributed by WFP in Gorkha and Kavrepalanchowk districts were substandard, the WFP has been repeatedly claiming that all the food distributed to earthquake victims were of good quality.
