Deletion of the CIAA’s mandate to deal with “improper actions” of public position holders in the preliminary draft Constitution was not but a regressive move towards fighting corruption in Nepal

Much has been argued about the content and coverage of the new Constitution which is being written by the Constituent Assembly in Nepal. Serious attention has been paid to such contentious issues as mode of federalism, forms of governance, judicial system, election system, fundamental rights and so on, but the issues related to good governance and anti-corruption mechanisms do not seem to have received due attention of the constitution writers.

In the coming years, the main criterion for measuring the impact of on-going state restructuring and transformation process in Nepal through a new Constitution would be the extent to which good governance has been achieved. Good governance should also mean high level of compliance with ethical standards, coupled with zero-tolerance for corruption, and people’s increased faith and confidence in government for its institutional capabilities to run the state affairs by delivering public services. The moral conduct of both citizens and those who govern is also related to quality of all-round national development as economic growth can be attained even with high level of corruption.

Nepal continues to perform poorly in anti-corruption front in recent years in view of its score in the “Control of Corruption” measure of Governance Index of the World Bank. Its percentile rank in control of corruption in the last eight years has varied between 23 and 31 out of 100, which is higher than the rank of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan and but lower than the rank of Bhutan, India, Maldives and Sri Lanka in the South Asian region during the same period. Likewise, though Nepal’s score on the Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International has fluctuated in recent years, it has always been at the lower extreme.

Though political leaders have occasionally shown their abilities to bring historic political changes in Nepal, the state of governance system under their leadership continues to be weaker and worsening.The image of political leaders has been very poor among the people, especially in the last 10 years, which has also lowered the morale of ethical persons. Likewise, public image of administrators tends to have been built as those who are slow, inefficient, self-centric, least concerned with people’s needs and sufferings and often scared of taking risks.

In Nepal, corruption continues to be allegedly fostered by politicians and their nexus with militant political activists, corrupt administrators, business persons, industrialists, contractors, mediators and dons. Ironically, public positions are being sold and purchased in monitory terms, which was hardly a known phenomenon even during the Panchayat regime. Moreover, corruption has also manifested as a socio-economic legacy.

A performance-oriented work culture is lacking in public offices and the observations of inefficiency, less accountability, low transparency and unethical practices on the part of public offices or officials have been “taken for granted” phenomena. Someone who behaves with professional competence and integrity is very much likely to become an odd guy in the team and also a target of continuous attack of less competent, non-performing and corrupt colleagues and bosses. These culturally-rooted behavioural patterns have harmed both people in general in terms of getting due services from public servants and the entire civil service community in terms of building poor public image and losing people’s faith and confidence on the government machinery.

Corruption grows in a situation of mis-management, financial indiscipline and lack of low transparency and public accountability in administrative affairs. Moreover, this also fosters in the absence of clarity in policies and legal provisions, close monitoring and stern actions against the culprits. According to the latest report of the Auditor General of Nepal, the amount of cumulative unsettled accounts has reached some NRs 343 billion, which is one half of the last year’s national budget. The draft Constitution has no clear vision of what type of public administration will be developed in the country for fulfilling the constitutional commitments concerning different spheres of national life. The provision of the draft Constitution, Article 55 (b)4, for the state’s governance related policies looks incomplete. This needs to be extended to include the globally practiced values or principles of public administration.

CIAA needs to be given more biting teeth through both policy and legal provisions to fight with corruption of higher magnitudes in terms of size of monitory losses, severity of suffering of people and degradation of social values and norms and also to make far reaching impact in moral and ethical aspects of national life. Deletion of the CIAA’s mandate to deal with “improper actions” of public position holders in the preliminary draft Constitution was not but a regressive move towards fighting corruption in Nepal.

Loud and strong public voices need to be raised from different sectors of national life to ensure that the new Constitution not only makes provisions for strong institutional mechanisms to fight with corruption but also creates environment for ethical conduct on the part of all citizens, including those holding public positions and service seekers.

Dr Pant is ex ED, Nepal Administrative Staff College.