NEPALGUNJ, Aug 2: National Sports Council (NSC) has failed to release the details of the expenses and progress report of the eighth National Games which was held in Province 5, few months ago.
According to the Article 2 of the National Events Operational Directory 2018, all the details of the expenses of the total budget made in the event have to be made public within six weeks of its completion. However, the NSC has failed to make the report public even four months after the deadline expired.
The national event was held in different venues in Bhairahawa, Dang and Nepalgunj. A total of Rs 440 million was spent in the national event held in the second week of April this year which was led by the then NSC Member-Secretary Keshav Kumar Bista. Nepal Army Club dominated in the medal tally.
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A lawyer Bishwa Jit Tiwari of Nepalgunj said that a national body like the NSC mustn’t fail to follow the rules set by the government. “Government officials talk a lot about transparency and accountability but the government agencies often fail to deliver when it requires. All the expenses of the national event must be made public without any excuse,” said Tiwari. “Several multi-million projects and infrastructure development activities were carried out during the event but we still don’t know how the money was spent. It is every Nepali citizen’s concern as well as the right to know each and every facts and figures related to it.”
According to the directory, the NSC should have shown the details on the second week of June. Bista, who was replaced by Ramesh Silwal on July 8, didn’t make any efforts to clear the pending accounts before he left the office. Silwal, who is concentrated more on the upcoming 13th South Asian Games (SAG), has not addressed the issue so far.
An Advance Clearance Committee (ACC) has been formed under the coordination of NSC member Sudil Shahi. The NSC’s secretariat chief Indra Karki stated that no budget details can be released until they get official report from the ACC.
The NSC’s department chief Kul Bahadur Thapa admitted that there has been delay in the process and vowed to release the official statement as soon as they complete the report and clear the pending payments. “We are yet to clear some of the payments, which is the main reason of the delay. We will make the expenses public after settling the issues.”
Meanwhile, a total of Rs 5.26 billion has been allocated for the upcoming 13th SAG to be held in December in Kathmandu and Pokhara.
