According to a source at the prime minister´ office (PMO), many state ministers have been making blatantly frequent visits to the districts for minor government functions and also party functions of late. [break]
On Tuesday alone, the PMO received 16 applications from ministers and state ministers who wanted their travel-related bills endorsed or sought prior consent for visits to districts.
On Monday, the PMO had received 15 applications from ministers and state ministers seeking endorsement of their travel-related expenditures. And on Sunday, the office had received a dozen applications from cabinet members for trips to districts.
"The cabinet itself is jumbo huge so the applications and travel-related bills too are huge," the PMO source added.
The source further said that they have been receiving a dozen of applications every day for the past 10 days.
Out of 16 applications submitted at the PMO on Tuesday, six were ministers and remaining were state ministers.
Health Minister Rajendra Mahato, Local Development Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, Tourism Minister Lokendra Bista, Energy Minister Posta Bahadur Bogati and Law Minister Brijesh Kumar Gupta are among those making frequent field trips.
State Minister for Tourism Dilip Maharjan, State Minister for Finance Hari Raj Limbu, State Minister for Education Leela Bhandari, State Minister for Environment Durga Devi Mahato, State Minister for Women and Children Arbinda Sah and State Minister for Forest Laxman Mahato are found to have making frequent district visits for seemingly pointless tasks.
Most of them said they visited the districts for inspecting subordinate offices, holding interaction with officials and inaugurating projects.
Owing to misuse of state coffers for pointless trips by the ministers, the PMO had issued a directive defining the criteria for field trips.
Records show ministers have made trips for inaugurating temples, buildings, workshops and trainings, for attending party functions, and for inspection of district offices and attending festivals.
At the special initiative of PMO Secretary Leelamani Paudyal, the PMO had issued a directive to all ministers asking them to furnish evidence of their domestic trips to claim reimbursement of expenses. As per the directive, ministers are required to show evidence including information on where, when and why were the field trips made.
The PMO had also warned ministers that expenses wouldn´t be reimbursed if visits were found to have been made for personal reasons or reasons of party politics.
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