Kathmandu, March 3

The Office of Attorney General has conceded that was facing difficulties in making criminal investigation and prosecution of government cases objective and scientific.

The OAG's annual report (2015/16) submitted to President Bidya Devi Bhandari said, "The government, which acts as a plaintiff in criminal cases, still has a long way to go to make criminal investigation objective and evidence-based. The main problem is the government does not get reports of scientific tests on time. There is an urgent need to provide for modern technique and procedure of scientific testing in the existing laws."

The report also complained of lack of human resources to conduct scientific examination of evidence. "We have not been able to ensure support and protection to crime victims and witnesses in an effective manner. It is not an easy task to defend government decisions taken by committing legal errors and violating the Supreme Court directives."

The attorneys face difficulty in defending cases of government agencies due to the latter's failure to provide details, information and documents. The OAG has recommended that the government create and maintain posting of one attorney each for 200 cases. Currently, the attorneys to cases ratio is 1:700.82.

The OAG has also stressed on creating a criminology investigation centre to make the existing penal police more effective, besides increasing the budget ceiling. "It is necessary for the government to consider study reports related to the present condition of prisons across the country and increase the monthly expenditure for food, clothes and other facilities to be provided to jailbirds in line with inflation," suggested the OAG report.

Meanwhile, the report said government attorneys dealt with a total 28,563 cases during the fiscal 2015/16 with a success rate of 70.09 per cent, an increase by 5.62 per cent compared to the last fiscal.