There was a provision of providing 121 percent of the monthly salary as incentive amount to the civil servants deployed in election while judiciary staffers have been receiving 50 percent of the basic monthly salary as per a government decision. As the judiciary staffers deployed in the CA election received both incentives, the Auditor General's office has mentioned the duplication in unsettled accounts. The OAG report has highlighted that the incentives provided by the Supreme Court and other lower courts to their staffers, who were deployed in the election, should be recovered from them.According to the annual report, nine courts have already refunded Rs 952,000 of the unsettled accounts and seven other courts are in the process to reimburse the funds. As per the report, incentives amounting to Rs 14.36 million provided by 56 other courts to their staffers deployed in the election has also been mentioned in unsettled accounts.
Likewise, the annual report has shown that the payments were made to the contractors who constructed buildings for Kathmandu District Court and Biratnagar Appellate Court going beyond the provisions of the financial regulations.
Although the contractors who built the building of Kathmandu District Court had initially signed contracts worth Rs 289.198 million, they received a total of Rs 339.04 million. The OAG report, however, highlighted that Rs 17.078 million was paid to contractors even without issuing variation orders although variation orders were issued earlier on six occasions. The annual report also stated that the court should have ordered the contractor to pay a fine of Rs 25.5 million for not completing the contract within the deadline as per the contract. Under similar circumstances, the report has suggested fining Rs 9.942 million to the contractor, who built buildings for the Biratnagar Appellate Court.
The report has revealed that there is Rs 179.945 million in unsettled accounts within the judiciary. Initially, the arrear amount was Rs 341.553 million but Rs 161.6 million was already settled.
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