Kathmandu, July 16

The Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development has directed all 75 district development committees, Kathmandu Metropolitan City, 12 sub-metropolitan cities and 204 municipalities to collect property details of employees for the fiscal year 2016/17 and submit them to the ministry by September 13.

“The concerned local bodies will be required to submit the property details of their employees in a sealed envelope separately. Name and surname, post, service/group, level, office and mobile number of each employee should be mentioned in the envelop,” said the letter dated July 14.

“If property details of any employee are not submitted to the MoFALD within the given time-frame, the name and personal details of such employee will be referred to the National Vigilance Centre and the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority for legal action,” it added.

The CIAA had recommended to the government to slap a fine of Rs 5,000 each on 24,376 public officials who failed to submit their property details or missed the given deadline for the same as per existing laws in last fiscal. As many as 22,860 public officials failed to submit their property details, while 1,516 submitted their property details after expiry of the deadline.

An MoFALD official said over 2,000 local body employees were slapped a fine of Rs 5,000 for failing to furnish property details.

According to Article 50 of the Prevention of Corruption Control Act, any person who joins public office is, within 60 days from the date of joining such office and thereafter within 60 days from the date of completion of each fiscal year, required to submit the updated statement of property in his/her or his/her family members’ name along with sources or evidence thereof to the body prescribed by the government. The concerned body or authority may extend the deadline for submission of such details for a maximum of 30 days.

Moreover, the person, who fails to submit the statement of property within the extended time limit, is liable to a fine of Rs 5,000.