Politics and corruption
The Himalayan Times
6 February 2020
Politics
and corruption
Nepal has been practicing
parliamentary democracy for long with representation of elected people in the
House of Representatives. All the representatives are elected by the people through
the election process. A majority or coalition government is run by the
parliamentary-elected Prime Minister, with his cabinet holding executive powers.
Nepal is now experiencing three levels of government under the federal
structure. All these governments are facing public criticisms for being
involved in institutional corruption.
It was encouraging to know that
Nepal has improved its rank in Global Corruption Index from 124th to
113th among 180 countries as per the recently published report of Transparency
International “Political corruption” (THT, February 4, THT, Page 6). However,
the government has been widely criticised for its inefficiency in controlling
the level of corruption. In politics, corruption undermines democracy and good
governance by avoiding formal processes. Corruption in elections and in the
legislature reduces accountability and distorts representation in policymaking;
corruption in the judiciary compromises the rule of law; and corruption in
public administration results in the inefficient provision of services.
As pointed out in a survey
conducted by International Transparency in 2016, 90 per cent of the people
surveyed had said the political leaders and their parties were the most corrupt
in Nepal. This clearly shows that the level of political corruption in Nepal is
very high, which has directly or indirectly instigated institutional corruption
that is widely seen in the bureaucratic and other semi or non-government
organizations. This has obviously affected the overall health, education,
social, economic and other sectors of the nation and its people. Who is to
blame for this?
Rai
Biren Bangdel
Maharajgunj
