Directive comes in the wake of growing demand  for funds to finance projects not included in budget speech

KATHMANDU, Nov 22: The parliament’s Finance Committee has instructed the government to tighten off-budget spending. 

Following a discussion on public spending, particularly capital expenditure, with officials of various ministries on Monday, the Finance Committee meeting on Wednesday made a six-point decision that, among others, decided to issue an instruction to the Ministry of Finance for becoming strict on off-budget requests.

The parliamentary panel’s decision to instruct the finance ministry to become more conservative in approving off-budget requests comes at a time when it is said to be overwhelmed with demands for off-budget requests amounting to billions of rupees.

“Since it was found that various ministries have demanded huge amount in off-budget, the committee decided to issue a directive to the Ministry of Finance to not approve such requests except under essential heading whose rationale is proved,” reads the decision of the parliamentary panel.

According to the finance ministry, various ministries have demanded a total of Rs 44.75 billion in off-budgetary fund even before the end of the first trimester of Fiscal Year 2018/19.

Most of these demands are from ministries which have made little progress in capital spending.

The data maintained by Financial Comptroller General Office shows that the total capital expenditure stands at only 9.61 percent of the allocated budget of Rs 335.18 billion as of November 18.

Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD), Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Ministry of Home Affairs, and Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) are the major ministries, seeking off-budgetary support from the finance ministry despite poor spending.

Similarly, the Finance Committee has also instructed the MoF and other concerned ministries to make sure that multi-year projects which are being operated with multi-year contract are not left in limbo due to lack of resources. 

Stating that the Department of Roads has issued a circular to halt implementation of some multi-year projects and programs which are already under implementation phase as they have been handed over to provincial level, the Finance Committee also decided to issue directive to the Ministry of Finance for ensuring resources and other supports to such projects. 

Before making the decision, some members of the parliament, including Ram Kumari Jhakri had criticized the circular of the department along with lack of resource guarantee which have stalled many projects at local levels. 

The committee also decided to issue directive to the government to submit work-plan of various ministries for capital expenditure at the earliest.

Ministries that have big development projects are also told to submit various details on projects/programs completed under multi-year contract or yet to be completed within seven days. They have been asked to present to the committee projects of multi-year contract that are said to be run by central, provincial and local governments and criteria for handing such projects to local levels, among others. It has also decided to seek details like date of signing contract, contract period, contract amount, name of contractor, name and post of project chief signing the contract along with other information like status of the project and the remaining work.

Projects that have not been completed on time, program details, reasons for not being completed on time, responsible parties, grace period, variation and amount for the compensation are other details sought by the Finance Committee.

 
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