Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, February 22:

The government has reconstituted the High Level Public Expenditure Commission (HLPEC), under the chairmanship of Prof Dr Bishwambher Pyakuryal.

About two months ago, former finance minister Adhikari had formed the commission to expedite work on public expenditure management of the country and to allocate annual budget effectively and properly.

Pyakuryal had earlier resigned from the commission, led by Dr Dilli Raj Khanal as the chairman of the commission, who had been appointed to the post by former deputy prime minister and finance minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari. Some posts in the commission had fallen vacant following resignations by some of its members. The commission has a working tenure of five months. Since it started operating a month late and two months have already elapsed, the new members of the commission have an uphill task to meet the huge work load in the remaining two months.

Because of the short time allowed, the commission is likely to face difficulties in accomplishing its huge work, said one of the members of the new commission on conditions of anonymity.

Members of the commission led by Prof Pyakuryal are Dr Binayak Bhadra, Kaushlendra Kumar Singh, Comptroller General, Keshav Acharya, executive director of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), and board chairman of Nepal Accounting Standard Board (NASB). Member secretary of the commission is under-secretary at the National Planning Commission (NPC), Rabi Sainju.

Meanwhile, issuing a press statement today, ministry of finance has stated that the commission would work on making the budgetary system effective, improve financial discipline of the government, strengthen transparency and improve service delivery of the government. The commission has to hold a series of ‘interactions and studies’ on various sectors of the economy. It has to work on how Nepal can achieve the millennium development goals, implement medium-term expenditure framework, sector-wise integrated cooperation management, annual budget allocation in various sectors, proper strategies and policies to be adopted and selection of viable projects to be implemented.