Hoping for improvement
The Himalayan Times
25 May 2017
Hoping
for improvement
After
former CIAA chief Lokman Singh Karki was unseated by the Supreme Court verdict declaring
him unfit for the post, the corruption watchdog commission was running without chief.
Likewise, the Office of the Auditor General was also looking forward to a new AG
after the former AG Bhanu Acharya resigned from his post a few months ago. The
government has finally filled these two constitutional positions; Deep Basnyat
as the CIAA chief and Tanka M. Sharma as the new AG “New CIAA chief, AG sworn
in” (THT, May 23, Page 3).
The
role of CIAA chief in our country seems to be crucial and challenging. However,
the political interference and threats continue to make the chief unable to
fully exercise his authority letting big fishes swim around freely. There were
some cases of political leaders in the past spending time behind the bars
charged with corruption. However, we have not heard in recent years that CIAA putting
any corrupt people behind the bars. There is rampant institutionalized corruption
in the country. Common people have to pay even for seeking government services.
Likewise,
the role of AG is vital and crucial in terms of making the government and its
ministries, departments and their local level organizations aware of budget
spending irregularities by carrying out periodic internal audit. Billions of
rupees have been misappropriated by the government organizations in the last
several years as cited in the AG’s annual audit report recently submitted to
the President. There is no proper follow up and controlling mechanism from the
concerned officials and organizations to recover dues from the concerned
officials and organizations; as a result, the volume of accumulated amount continue
to swell up every year.
Rai Biren
Bangdel
Maharajgunj,
Kathmandu
