According to the legal provisions, local bodies have to return to the central accounts any money received for development work if they cannot spend it within that fiscal year. [break]
Investigations by the National Vigilance Centre (NVC) revealed that dozens of local government bodies have failed to return nearly Rs 15 billion to the District Financial Comptroller´s Offices, regarded as keepers of the central government´s accounts in the districts.
NVC, an anti-graft body, said local bodies including District Development Committees (DDCs), municipalities and Village Development Committees (VDCs) are found to have been violating financial norms by not transferring budget amounts unspent at the end of the fiscal year, back into the central government´s accounts.
NVC Spokesperson Sher Bahadur Dhungana informed that most DDCs, municipalities and VDCs have not transferred unspent budgets back to the center since 2005.
"Our investigation shows that Rs 3 billion was not transferred to the central accounts by various local bodies last year alone," he said, adding, "They seem to have been not transferring a tentative figure of Rs 3 billion each year for the last five years. Nearly Rs 15 billion has not been transferred back to the central accounts."
The Financial and Local Development Acts say that every local body must return unspent budgets to the central accounts at the end of the fiscal year to ensure transparency in activities conducted throughout the fiscal year.
According to the legal provisions, the unspent amounts are forzen and must be returned to the central accounts. Financial transactions would not be transparent and there might have been chances of financial irregularities if that is not done.
The government has been distributing billions to the DDCs, municipalities and VDCs to implement various development-related projects.
"The trend of various local bodies concealing budgets is rife," Dhungana told Republica.
NVC officials said both the Office of the Auditor General and Office of the Financial Comptroller are responsible for the problem. "Their main roles are to check financial expenses by auditing transactions," he said, adding, "Where were they? What were they doing?"
Some 13 municipalities have not returned around Rs 140 million while 24 various DDCs have not returned nearly Rs 400 million.
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