“To put it in a nutshell, Giri was sacked for not working in the spirit of the prime minister’s directive,” Ganga Shrestha, the prime minister’s personal secretary, told Republica. [break]
Shrestha, however, refused to elaborate what he meant by the “spirit of the directive”. But sources said Giri obstructed implementation of the reform programs initiated by the prime minister before Giri assumed the labor and transport portfolio.
The prime minister, in consultation with officials at his office, had laid down programs to usher reforms in 30 areas of the foreign employment, the main source of remittance.
Sources close to the prime minister and officials at the Ministry of Labor and Transport Management (MoLTM) told Republica that the prime minister was compelled to sack her on at least four grounds after she refused to resign voluntarily.
First, Giri was exerting pressure on officials at the Department of Foreign Employment to accept attestations of job demands from foreign countries even from authorized agencies, notary public and chamber of commerce based in the countries placing labor demand.
The department, when the reforms were enforced, stopped recognizing the attestations from agencies other than the Nepali embassies after they found involved in fraudulent activities.
“The manpower agencies duped common people by producing fake attestations of job demands. But Giri wanted the ministry officials to recognize attestations from other agencies as well, something that would benefit manpower agencies” said a source close to the prime minister.
Second, government officials said manpower agencies manipulated the job approvals to dupe common people and make money. Manpower agencies were against the policy and had lobbied Giri to change it. Accordingly, Giri exerted pressure on the department officials to address the concern of manpower agencies.
Third, the prime minister had directed the ministry not to issue any license to new manpower companies as there were already 900 companies. But Giri directed the department to register five new companies.
Fourth, Giri did not cooperate with ministry officials to implement the prime minister’s programs. Bhattarai had assigned Joint Secretary Purna Chandra Bhattarai to implement the reform programs. But Giri recalled the joint secretary from the department to the ministry, accusing him of not working as per her instructions.
Shrestha said Giri transferred the director general of the department to the ministry despite the prime minister’s opposition.
“The prime minister had asked her (Giri) twice not to transfer the director general. But she did not listen to him,” added Shrestha.
However, Giri claimed that the prime minister sacked her under pressure from the bureaucracy.
“I refused to get involved in policy level corruption. So, I got sacked,” Giri added. She accused the prime minister of trying to impose arbitrary rule through the bureaucracy.
When asked about her involvement in irregularities, she said, “If anyone finds me involved in any kind of corruption, I will retire from politics itself.”
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