The committee has found that the former minister violated the government´s directives set for the distribution of relief teacher quotas. "He did not stick to an agreed document prepared by the government itself while distributing relief teacher quotas," a member of the committed unwilling to be named, said. [break]
According to him, Kushwaha distributed relief teacher quotas through his direct orders. "The use of personal direct orders in violation of the government´s directives is in itself a proof of corruption," he said. The Ministry of Education (MoE) had distributed 36,000 quotas in the last three years, excluding those allotted for women and the physically disabled.
The committed has asked the government to take legal action against Kushwaha in its report handed over to Prime Minister Madhav Nepal. "As ours is not a judicial committee, we just suggested to the government to take action against Kushwaha," he said.
According to him, Prime Minister Nepal promised to take necessary action against Kushwaha as he received the report. Prime Minister Nepal even instructed new Minister for Education Sarwendra Nath Shukla to correct all the mistakes made by his predecessor.
The probe committee headed by National Planning Commission (NPC) member Tirtha Raj Khaniya was formed by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) with the mandate of submitting its report within 15 days. Earlier, the government had sacked Kushwaha from the post of education minister so as to clear the way for the Khaniya committee to freely investigate.
The government had formed the Khaniya committee in response to a call of nine donor agencies supporting the School Sector Reform Program (SSRP) through a basket fund.
The nine donor agencies had threatened the government that they would stop funding SSRP if the latter failed to take convincing steps to prevent corruption. The donor agencies´ warning had come after the parliament´s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) implicated Kushwaha in the anomalies in distributing teacher quotas.
However, Kushwaha rejected the charge that he flouted the government´s directives while distributing quotas. "There was no directive at all; how can the committee indict me for flouting these not-existent directives," he argued.
Kushwaha put the blame on the Department of Education (DoE)´s then Director General Mahashram Sharma and some district education officers (DEOs) for not sticking to the due process of quota distribution.
"I am innocent," Kushwaha said, "Sharma and some district education officers did all the wrongdoings." Kushwaha, however, admitted that he issued direct orders for relief quota distribution.
"As a minister accountable to the people, I could not send back villagers who approached me asking for relief quotas for the schools in their localities," he said. "But DoE officials could turn down my orders if they were not as per the law."
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