“We still don´t know exact details of what the NOC board decided on Thursday. But if NOC takes steps to distribute bonus, its management and board officials will face instant actions from CIAA,” Bhagawati Kafle, secretary at the constitutional anti-graft body told myrepublica.com. [break]
CIAA Spokesperson Ishwari Prasad Paudel stated that they have already instructed the government, including Secretary at Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS) -- which is the parent ministry of NOC -- not to distribute bonus at any other public entities (PEs) suffering cumulative loss, even if they recorded profit in a specific fiscal year.
“The instruction is applicable for all PEs and clearly, NOC cannot be an exception,” Paudel said, adding that MoCS, NOC board and its management must comply with it.
Going by the prevailing laws, the government and agencies must follow instructions of constitutional anti-graft body. Disobeying them in general is taken as an act of corruption and the anti-graft body can initiate actions against the suspects accordingly.
Officials at the anti-graft body also expressed surprise over NOC board meekly bowing to the agitating workers.
Statistics show NOC has accumulated loss of around Rs 8 billion and debt worth Rs 11 billion. It is still forcing consumers pay more for fuel to recoup past loss and is dependent on loans to finance imports.
Citing such situation, the NOC board two weeks ago had decided to stop management´s bid to distribute bonus for the year 2008/09, when it profited Rs 3.31 billion. However, on Thursday it preferred to reverse the decision after two trade unions at NOC launched strike, obstructing fuel supplies from Wednesday.
This had drawn criticism from financial regulators as well as consumers´ organizations.
Interestingly, MoCS Secretary Purushottam Ojha, who chairs NOC board and on Thursday agreed to reverse the board´s decision against distributing bonus, too said that MoCS will not allow distribution of bonus.
“We have already directed NOC and all PEs placed under MoCS not to distribute bonus as CIAA instructed last week. The bonus will not be distributed,” he said.
Ojha even tagged Thursday´s agreement as just ´amendment´ to the earlier decision and not a complete reversal.
“We have agreed to decide the matter as per the law. That does not mean that we gave nod to bonus distribution,” he stated.
milan@myrepublica.com
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