Kathmandu, January 6

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority today wrote to the government to reclaim salary and allowances paid to ambassadors,who had overstayed on international assignments.

After a hearing on complaints against eight Nepali ambassadors, who had overstayed on their assignments without prior consent of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the anti-graft body recommended the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers to reclaim the salary and allowances paid to them.

The ambassadors normally have a tenure of four years.

The eight ambassadors against whom the complaints were lodged are Shankar Sharma (USA), Bhoj Raj Ghimire (Canada), PB Shah (Brazil), Mohan Krishna Shrestha (France), Arun Dhital (Egypt), Sushil Chandra Amatya (Sri Lanka), and Suresh Chalise (UK), according to a source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Nevertheless, some of them, including Shrestha, got a clean chit from the CIAA as they produced evidence of prior consent taken from the government to extend their stay, it added.

The ambassadors had overstayed for one to four months.

Likewise, the CIAA also recommended setting the criteria for extending an ambassador’s tenure on the basis of urgency as well as his/her performance and its benefits and cost for the county.

It further added that such extension should be made on the recommendation of the MoFA.