KATHMANDU: Looks are deceiving. At a glance, the Ministry of Local Development (MoLD), which was constructed during the reign of the Ranas, looks majestic and beautiful. But as one steps on the threshold of the ministry, it takes us to battered vehicles, moth-eaten furniture, littered cookwares and tangled stationeries, some as old as the ministry itself, that keep piling on for several years.

MoLD is not the only ministry dumping old stuffs in its premises and leaving them where they are forever. This phenomena is common in all government ministries, said Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, spokesperson at the MoLD.

According to Thapaliya, ministries have so far dumped goods worth an estimated Rs one billion in their premises.

He said that those goods could be utilised but the ministries were showing no concern.

As per the existing law, the government ought to carry out an inventory of the properties

housed in each ministry biennially and categorise them as ‘maintainable’ and ‘non-maintainable’ property. But it is seldom practiced in Nepal, Thapaliya said.

Existing laws allows the ministry to auction the unused properties such as vehicles, computers, furniture and utensils annually.

“But those laws exists only on papers. Nowhere in our country, laws are implemented in right earnest,” Thapaliya bemoans.

Secretaries and the department heads in the ministry are responsible for the maintenance of the old and used properties, including their auction but there are serious obstacles facing them, according to Thapaliya.

MoLD alone has dumped its office properties worth Rs two million, let alone the District Development Committees, which have wasted old and unused properties worth several millions of rupees.

Similarly, vehicles seized from the Nepal-India border by the custom offices keep piling up for years but there is no effort taken to bring them to use.

At least a dozen rusted vehicles, including a Land Cruiser and Toyota are lying in the MoLD premises, giving an ugly look to the department. The authority is simply a mute spectator. The same holds true to the Ministry of Education (MoE) and Sports, where old cars keep piling in.

Lekhnath Paudel, spokesperson, MoE, blames on the lengthy and cumbersome auction process for the sorry-state of affairs. Ministry of Home Affairs is not free from the blame either.