KATHMANDU, Feb 12: The government’s commitment to maintain good governance in public administration looks good just on paper, while the Commission for the Investigation of the Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has painted a bleak picture of reality – pointing out a large number of flaws in the working mechanism at various government levels.
According to the CIAA, it has been receiving a large number of complaints on corruption related to construction works, budget disbursement, grant distribution and service delivery, among others, at all three tiers of the governments. Speaking at the 33rd anniversary of the CIAA on Sunday, the Chief Commissioner of the CIAA Prem Kumar Rai said most of the complaints are related to the encroachment of public property, bribing, misconducts to gain undue advantages and amassing illegally earned property.
The CIAA chief stated that transparency is not seen in public procurement and construction, while the government has not followed the appropriate standards of the natural resources while formulating the budget and programs.
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“Collusion in selecting projects, giving payments without operating programs, excessive use of natural resources breaching the thresholds maintained in the approved environmental impact assessment, influences of middlemen in public service delivery, lack of assuming responsibility and accountability, delay in decision making to carry out financial irregularities, among others, are increasing,” said Rai adding that in many cases, the authority concerned fail to take actions against the wrongdoers.
Rai called on the responsible bodies and office-bearers to become extra responsible when it comes to fulfilling their legal responsibilities on protecting and conserving the public property, saying misuse of public land has increased and the tendency of selling the government land for personal purpose is also seen.
He stressed on the need of immediately putting to an end the anomalies and aberrations seen in the public entities and to promote good governance in the country so as to increase the citizens' faith in the government.
Reminding that it would be difficult to achieve the expected success in corruption control until the politicians and officials in the executive role in all the three tiers of the government, the civil servants and the general public realize their responsibility to that connection, the CIAA chief called upon all to contribute from their respective places in the national campaign of corruption control.
Addressing the program, President Ram Chandra Paudel said corruption and a corrupt mentality have eroded moral values, weakening the foundation of the nation. He called for political resolution to curb corruption.
