- PM spent Rs 21.45m, Foreign Minister Rs 10.27m for UN trip
KATHMANDU, May 11: Members of the Public Account Committee (PAC) of the parliament have raised serious concerns about the government´s excessive expenses in travels and unjustified transfer of budget from one heading to another.
In a PAC meeting held on Sunday, the members said the government had grossly misappropriated state funds allocated under the miscellaneous heading in the current fiscal. [break]
In the preliminary discussion on a document sent by the Finance Ministry, the members said the government spent excessive amount in foreign trips and provided amount to certain District Development Committees, bypassing the Local Development Ministry.
According to the document made available by the Finance Ministry to the PAC, the budget for the current fiscal had allocated Rs 375 million under miscellaneous head for development activities. However, the government spent Rs 4.06 billion, almost 12 folds more than earmarked sum, under the heading.
"The most serious concern is that the additional spending has been made by transferring the budget allocated for other activities under different heads. But, as per the law, such allocation shouldn´t exceed 10 percent of the original allocation," Ram Krishna Yadav, chairman of the PAC.
The document also reckoned that the government released an additional Rs 1.10 billion for District Development Committees by transferring budget earmarked for other purposes. Kathmandu DDC topped the list of DDCs receiving additional budget followed by Gorkha. According to the document, Kathmandu received Rs 63.7 million additional budget and Gorkha, the home district of Finance Minister, Rs 57 million.
The document further said that total transferred amount under the miscellaneous expenditure for Ministry of Finance for development activities crossed Rs 2.33 billion whereas the allocated amount for the heading was Rs 6.28 million. Most of the expenditures made under this head was allocated to tackle the impact of Koshi flood and food shortage in rural hilly districts.
According to the report, the state coffer had to bear a cost of Rs 21.5 million for the Nepali delegation headed by the Prime Minister to participate in the 63rd General Assembly of the UN. “A poor nation like Nepal has spent Rs 31.7 million for the PM and Foreign Minister visit to UN alone,” said Yadav.
Most of the PAC members of demanded the chairman to call Finance Secretary and Secretary at the National Planning Commission to get details of the unplanned expenditures made by the government by violating standard rules and norms.
Maoist lawmakers, however, claimed that questioning the rationale behind the expenditure made for PM´s visit and other development works would be politically biased. They also warned of walking out of the meeting if the PAC questioned the expenditure.
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