Siraha, April 25

With the arrest of the chief administrative officer and accountant over financial irregularities, all financial transactions of Kalyanpur Municipality have come to a complete halt in Siraha.

A team of officials from the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority had held  municipality accountant Jayaram Chaudhary with Rs 20,000 bribe money on March 18. Chief Administrative Officer Basudev Kumar Yadav was also brought in to the central office of the CIAA in connection with the bribe.

Accountant Chaudhary had taken the bribe money from the ward secretary of the municipality for approving construction and repairs bills of the office.

Mayor Surya Narayan Mandal said they were facing a hard time delivering service as the major officials of the finance department were under CIAA scanner.

“Other adjoining municipalities and rural municipalities are preparing various development and other plans; while we have not been able to distribute salary of the staff, let alone carry out development works. We have not carried out any financial transaction after the arrest of Accountant Chaudhary and Chief Administrative Officer Yadav,” said Mayor Mandal.

He said that they were unable to distribute salary of teachers and other staff besides the social security allowance. “If the situation continues, it will be hard for the people’s representatives to attend the office,” argued Mayor Mandal, who added that he had communicated to Governor Mohammad Lalbabu Raut about the problems caused by staff crunch.

“We are thinking of informing the federal government about the staff crunch and urge to manage them at the earliest,” Mandal said.

Meanwhile, Ward 6 Chairperson Mohammad Motibul Rayan said they were not able to execute different plans though they had formed consumers committees and municipal council had passed their projects due to the lack of the Chief Administrative Officer and the Accountant.