BE PRACTICAL
The Kathmandu Post
22
April 2016
BE PRACTICAL
It seems that the National Planning
Commissions (NPC) has finally realized that the programme budget to be provided
to various ministries for the coming fiscal year needs to be reduced in view of
the massive amount of funds that may be required for the post-quake reconstruction
programme (“NPC proposes budget reduction” 20 April, Page 1). Otherwise,
there was a tradition of increasing yearly budget of every ministry by
approximately ten percent without an appropriate mechanism.
Top down programming
and budgeting approach is still in practice in the government, forcing its
local level organizations to either haphazardly spend the allocated programme
budget or fail to spend allocated budget fully and let an enormous amount lie
unspent towards the end of the fiscal year. This process has also led to spike
in the amount of irregularities at government agencies, according to the
recently published audit report of the Department of Auditor General. The
government lacks proper mechanism to recover such amounts which continue to
accumulate resulting in a huge financial loss.
However, most of the ministries are as
usual exerting pressure on the NPC to increase their annual budget for the next
fiscal year. In addition, the Oli led government has created four new
ministries which has increased huge the financial burden on the national economy.
It seems that the donor organizations have also slowed down their commitment to
look at the slow pace of government’s reconstruction programme. The seven month long Madhes unrest and the
four month long Indian unofficial trade embargo were some of the contributing
factors for generating less revenue. This has directly or indirectly hit the
national economy, forcing the NPC to unusually reduce the next year’s programme
budget. This still seems to be a more realistic approach than arbitrarily
increasing the annual programme budget.
Rai Biren Bangdel
Maharajgun
http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/printedition/news/2016-04-22/voice-of-the-people-20160422090450.html
