According to NA´s Directorate of Welfare Schemes (DoWS), the current cash balance of the fund, both in local and foreign currency, is Rs 16 billion. [break]The major chunk of the fund is made up of amounts deducted from the allowances of army personnel deputed on UN peacekeeping missions.
“Clause (143) of the Army Act 2063 has a provision to deduct up to 22 percent per personnel of the total monthly allowance. For military observers, 5 percent deduction is made from the total earnings,” said Brigadier General Purna Chandra Thapa, chief of DoWS, at a press meet organized at Army Headquarters Tuesday. “Four billion rupees is yet to be reimbursed from the UN peacekeeping missions.”
Another contribution to the fund is interest paid on deposits by several financial institutions. Thapa said the fund amounts have been deposited in 60 financial institutions, most of them commercial banks.
The directorate has estimated that total yield from bank interest this time may be around Rs 930 million.
NA has made investments from the fund in the health and education sectors. Thapa said about Rs 370 million has been invested in health and 300 million in education. The returns on investment also get accumulated in the fund.
Admitting that corruption is something that needs to be mulled over with regard to financial activities and it is obvious why people become skeptical over this, Thapa said the directorate has taken utmost steps to keep anomalies at bay.
“The annual financial report of the fund is checked by the Office of the Attorney General as in the case of other government institutions and therefore everything is transparent,” the fund secretary claimed.
He also expressed satisfaction that Rs 670 million out of the total of 920 million doled out as advances and which had remained unsettled since many years, has been cleared in a period of one year.
Asked about the row over Nepal Bikash Bank in which NA had deposited Rs 180 million from the fund, Thapa said, “Although the fund´s money was a risk, NA has already recovered Rs 10 million. As per discussions held with the liquidator, we hope the rest of the money will also be recovered.”
Thapa also countered allegations that there had been irregularities in the “Housing Plan” initiated with money from the fund.
Among other things, NA provides housing, insurance, health and educational benefits from the fund to incumbent as well as retired army personnel and their dependents.
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