When Dr Baburam Bhattarai was sworn in as the Prime Minister in August last year, people were thrilled. They expected him to expedite the stalled peace process, complete the constitution-drafting, curb corruption, deliver good governance and make the delivery of basic public services more effective. Soon after assuming the much-coveted post, he sent out a message to people by issuing frugality guidelines, proposing austerity measures and symbolically, choosing a low-priced domestic automobile brand (Mustang Max) as his official vehicle. The commoners, wary of corruption and poor governance, had little option but to pin hopes on him while expecting him to reform the system.
Since then, he has completed almost eight months in the office. Comparing his promises made seven months ago to his actual achievements today gives us very little reason to cheer. Despite some achievements in furthering the peace process and constitution drafting, he seems to have almost failed in almost all aspects—controlling corruption and delivering effective governance. His government has recklessly hiked fuel prices thrice in two months. Even after raising prices of petroleum products, gasoline stations are often seen to be out of stock. People are seen queuing up for hours just to get an LPG cylinder re-filled. The life of people, the poor in particular, has become tougher as basic commodities are dearer with a rise in fuel prices. The government has failed to provide relief to the people, ensure a smooth supply of essential goods, control inflation and rein in corruption.
The PM´s anti-corruption promises and austerity measures have become victims of his own follies and are now irreparably damaged by coalition interests. A slew of blunders committed by the PM and his ministers have made the government’s zero tolerance principle seem like a joke and breached the frugality guidelines. The government’s decision to release Rs 20 million to Lumbini-Sagarmatha Campaign that includes UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal´s son speaks volume about the PM’s double-standards in being frugal while using the state coffers for illegitimate purposes.
Comparing Baburam Bhattarai’s promises made seven months ago with his disappointing performances, there is hardly anything to cheer about.
The unlawful transfer of civil servants has further tarnished the image of the Bhattarai-led government. His ministers were involved in transferring civil servants to ‘wet-agencies’ and reportedly seeking pre-paid bribes from them. The law does not allow a minister to transfer any government officials before the end of a two-year term. This problem assumed such grave proportions that the headless anti-graft body issued an order to cancel 1,871 such unlawful transfers. The threat of government secretaries to resign en masse further points towards the intensity of this issue. As transfer of officials involves huge commissions and bribes, it has been the most-favored option to rake in money among our ministers soon after they assume office.
What surprised everyone was prime minister’s blatant insensitivity toward these issues. Caving in to public pressure and criticism from all quarters, the PM sacked Sarita Giri, Minister for Labor and Transport Management and Nandan Kumar Dutta, Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives. The sacking of these two ministers is a calculated move because Bhattarai is confident that this will not weaken the base of his beleaguered government. If he is bold enough to say there is no room for dishonest and corrupt ministers in the cabinet, he must take action against at least half a dozen of them involved in various kinds of corruption. But this seems impossible now as they belong to powerful parties having a serious stake in the coalition.
In guaranteeing the rule of law, the Bhattarai-led government has failed miserably. The government made a mockery of the legal system by not imprisoning a murder convict Maoist lawmaker Bal Krishna Dhungel. When a sitting minister is convicted of corruption, he is immediately thrown behind bars but when the same court convicts a lawmaker of a crime, he walks scot-free in the Parliament. This contradiction raises serious questions about the type of democratic system we are trying to institutionalize. In yet another shameful act, the government withdrew criminal cases involving 367 individuals, including serious cases of murder, abduction and dacoit. It has put a big question mark on the credibility of the government.
In contravention of his commitment toward frugality measures, he did not even hesitate to cobble together a 49-member cabinet. It became the largest in the political history of Nepal after Sher Bahadur Deuba’s 48-member cabinet in the 1990s. This jamboree costs the state treasury Rs 8.6 million every month for salary, allowance and hospitality expenses. What can be more ironical than this for the PM of a country where 25 percent of the population lives in abject poverty? The PM can´t justify the bloated size of his cabinet with any logic. Not only this, he has even surpassed his predecessors by forming a jumbo coterie of personal assistants which needs nearly Rs one million monthly for their salaries and perks.
The trend of misusing taxpayer´s money for partisan purposes has also continued. His Cabinet colleague Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, Minister for Local Development, disbursed Rs 200 million to various projects to give a pie of development resources to his party cadres. The Ministry of Local Development and the National Planning Commission have given a green signal to disburse Rs 1.4 billion for 4,000 new development projects. All of us know that approving projects and distributing funds just few months before the end of the fiscal year is nothing but wasting the tax-payer´s money.
Bhattarai’s commitment to fill up the constitutional bodies has also remained unfulfilled. Though he initiated open competition to appoint heads in Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), Office of the Auditor General (OAG), Public Service Commission and the Election Commission (EC), political bickering has halted the entire process. The CIAA and OAG, which could have played a key role in checking corruption and maintaining fiscal discipline in political transition, have remained headless for more than half a decade now.
The PM must know that the government can´t succeed in fighting corruption just by initiating a 24-hour call centre until the existing oversight agencies are adequately strengthened. Though initially people felt enthusiastic and registered thousands of complaints at ‘Hello Sarkar’ in the first few weeks, the number of grievances has now fallen by 30 percent. People are losing faith with 70 percent of their registered complaints still remaining unaddressed. Practically, the helpline has neither been able to fight petty graft nor has it been able to reduce the harassment faced by people every day in dealing with the government machinery.
The PM must understand that combating corruption means an integrated approach of strengthening oversight agencies, ensuring their institutional integrity and taking a coordinated anti-corruption approach. Nepal is ranked as the second most corrupt country in South Asia not because we don´t have a regulatory mechanism, but because there is no political will to tackle corruption. The Bhattarai-led government has not been able to exhibit strong political will and has lacked a single coordinated approach against corruption. Therefore, until the government takes the problem more seriously by designing an effective and comprehensive anti-corruption regime, political commitment against corruption will continue to be a mere lip service.
pbhattarai2001@gmail.com
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