As OAG report has exposed irregularities in spending by government agencies, concerned bodies must act now

The Office of the Auditor’s General (OAG) made public its 55th annual report on Thursday, laying bare the reckless spending of almost all government institutions and constitutional bodies. The OAG prepared its report till the fiscal year 2016/17 during which government offices, local administrations and constitutional bodies had recklessly spent Rs 120 billion in the previous fiscal out of the total audited amount worth Rs 2,145 billion. The cumulative arrears and irregularities had gone up to Rs 500 billion till fiscal 2016/17. The report suggests almost all the government agencies and constitutional bodies have failed to maintain accounts as per the standard formats. The amount of arrears is almost half of the current fiscal budget. Auditor General Tanka Mani Sharma has said the Ministry of Physical Planning and Infrastructure, which is engaged in construction work, has the largest amount of arrears and irregularities. The irregularities occur in terms of construction, procurement, supplies, consultancy services, variation orders, renewal of project deadline and drawing and design. The OAG has blamed the Ministry of Finance (MoF) for what has gone wrong when it comes to maintaining fiscal discipline.

OAG chief Sharma has blamed poor implementation of procurement and governance rules for ever increasing arrears and irregularities in the government agencies. The only way to curb the fiscal indiscipline is making the concerned employees accountable to the project or other government-funded programmes. Laws and rules are already there to maintain fiscal discipline. The only thing the government employees need to do is implementing them. The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) does not need to conduct fresh investigation on a case already singled out by the OAG, which has clearly pointed out where irregularities have taken place. Other agencies such as the Internal Revenue Department, CIB and National Vigilant Centre can also take action against erring officials based on the OAG report. The OAG has also added a new feature in its 55th report. It has started mentioning names of chief accountant and responsible officer of the given office in its report so that erring officials can be booked even after their retirement.

Parliament should take up the OAG report seriously if it wants improvement in fiscal discipline, rule of law and good governance. Public Accounts Committe, which is the sole body to discuss the OAG report, must instruct the anti-graft body to launch probes on corruption cases based on the OAG report. The officials who delay on payment of bills for the work done should be penalised and their promotion and transfer suspended. Promotion and transfer of an employee must be made on the basis of his/her performance. The government, which spends more than 40 per cent of fiscal budget on recurrent expenditure, must stop hiring retired people as consultants for all projects. Sharma has rightly pointed out: “Why do we need government body if we get all the works done through contracts, consultants and outsourcing?” Consultant service should be sought in selective areas only where government lacks such expertise.

Saving city’s lungs

Parks and open spaces are considered the “lungs of the city”. But sadly, we are gradually losing them, and those which are not lost yet are struggling for their survival. The loss of open spaces in the Capital city has emerged as a major cause for concern. The need of open spaces in the Kathmandu Valley was seriously felt in the aftermath of the 2015 earthquake. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), every city should have a minimum of 9 square metres of green space per person. But Kathmandu, according to periodic plan of municipalities, the availability is 0.25 square metres per person.

The rise of urban population in coming days will mean denser cities, which will certainly create more pressure on maintaining public places. Parks and open spaces while provide the place for rest and play, they are also beneficial for hour health. Well-managed open spaces -- such as chowks in the Valley – also give a city its character. They also reflect the culture of the community. There is an urgent need to build and preserve open areas to save the cities from gasping due to shrinking lung spaces.