Check misuse of allocations
The Himalayan Times
3
June 2014
Check misuse of
allocations
It has been common practice for the
political parties in power to transfer the unspent budget from one heading to
another for their petty political purposes towards the end of the fiscal year.
This practice has been promoting gross misutilization of state coffers and
needs to be immediately stopped. Transferring program budgets to non program
headings needs prior approval and transparencies. Every year, the Auditor
General’s annual report points out the growing amount of misappropriated budget
hitting the state coffers hard. None of the past governments had shown any
interest to address these serious issues.
It is encouraging to see the opposition
political parties seriously raising this issue in the ongoing house as reported
in “Parliament meet adjourned again till tomorrow” (THT, 2 June, Page 1). The
NC led government has been blamed for transferring about Rs. 4 billion of the unspent
planned budget to non planned headings towards the end of this fiscal year. Spending
the budget at the last moment in a hurry also raises questions about the
quality of the job done and intention of misusing the budget.
The Finance Ministry has been planning to
present the budget for the next fiscal year in the beginning of Asad 2071 with
the intention of approving the plan and budget in time so that the
implementation can start early. It seems a positive step. There are still a lot
of beaurocratic and financial hurdles to get rid of at the centre for the
program and budget to get approved. The government should address the opposition’s
concern soon to be able to present the budget well in time.
Rai Biren Bangdel
Maharajgunj, Kathmandu
