Govt has zero tolerance policy towards corruption, says PM

Kathmandu, December 9

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba said that the government had adopted zero tolerance policy  towards corruption.

Addressing a programme organised by Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority to mark International Anti-Corruption Day, the PM said the government would extend all cooperation to anti-graft to prevent corruption and promote good governance. “I appreciate the CIAA’s preventive and punitive work,” he added.

Chief of CIAA Deep Basnyat said corruption pervaded all entities and it badly affected development projects. Basnyat said money worth   US $10 billion was being siphoned off through corrupt practices worldwide and corruption money was being used to fund terrorist and illegal activities.

He said corrupt practices of the private sector should be criminalised as per the spirit of the UN Convention against corruption signed in 2003. Nepal is a party to this convention. He also said that policies that aided corrupt practices should also come under the domain of the CIAA. He said the CIAA alone could not prove to be effective in preventing corruption.  “I therefore, urge all stakeholders to aid the CIAA’s efforts to promote good governance,” he added. He said the reports of CIAA unnecessarily meddling in other organ’s work were wrong.

Chief Secretary Lok Darshan Regmi said the government needed to enact some new laws and enter into agreements with other partners to effectively deal with corruption and to ensure good governance. He said all countries needed to jointly act to control corruption.