Schools that exist only in the documents of District Education Offices (DEOs) are termed as ´ghost school´. These schools have been siphoning off funds from DoEs by presenting fake students.[break]
According to the DoE, Sinduriya Mai Primary School in Birgunj and Nar Singh Primary School and Nandi Ratri Primary School in Basahiya village of Dhanusha have been receiving funds for teachers´ salaries, text books and other miscellaneous expenses. However, none of these schools exist.
When two different inspection teams deployed by the DoE reached Birgunj Sub Metropolitan City and Basahiya village, they did not find schools with those names. According to Dilli Rimal, director at the DoE, the DEOs in Parsa and Dhanusha have already been instructed to stop the funds to these ´ghost schools´. "We gave the instruction to the DEOs immediately after we learnt about them from our inspection teams," Rimal told Republica.
Lekh Nath Poudel, spokesperson of the MoE, said the initial investigation carried out by the DoE was confined to only a few districts. "We will continue our investigation in the days to come," he said. According to Poudel, there may be many more ´ghost schools´ in various districts. "We have learnt that these schools exist mainly in Tarai," he said. "So, we have put the Tarai districts under our scanner."
There are, the MoE officials say, chiefly two types of ghost schools. First, some ghost schools were truly operating in the past; but they continued to receive fund even after shutting down with all students having moved to other schools. Second, some crooked persons registered fake schools at the DEOs and started receiving fund for salaries, text books and various miscellaneous expenses in connivance with some corrupt officials at the department.
--Anomalies rife in PM´s district--
Rautahat, Prime Minister Madhav Nepal´s home district, has been enmeshed in various anomalies, exposed a report by the NVC.
According to the NVC, in the last fiscal year, District Development Office (DDO) of Rautahat spent as much as 60 per cent of its total internal income to provide perks to its employees. According to Local Self Governance Act-1999, the DDO can spend only upto 30 per cent of its yearly internal income for this purpose.
Similarly, as per Public Procurement Act-2007, a tender notice must be published to purchase any goods worth more than Rs one million. However, overlooking this act, the DDO procured 266 hand-pump sets worth over Rs 1.8 million without publishing a tender notice.
Such anomalies are rampant not only in the DDO but also Gaur Municipality, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and District Forest Office of Rautahat. This report was prepared after a field visit by a five-member inspection team headed by NVC´s under secretary Sher Bahadur Dhungana.
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