Kathmandu, March 29

As corruption, black-marketing and short supply of essential consumer items become rampant, government authorities have either turned into mute spectators or are protecting them.

Even the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority has become choosy about persons it wants to take action against or ignore without justifiable reason.

These were the voices raised by members of parliament at today’s meeting of the Committee on Good Governance and Monitoring in Singha Durbar.

Former office bearers including former home ministers, former IGPs and generals of Nepali Army are using various facilities including vehicle, fuel, aides and security guards unnecessarily spending from the state coffers although there is no legal provision for the same, the parliamentarians told the panel.

Another burning issue they raised was that people without access to authorities in Singha Durbar are facing difficulties entering the central administrative hub.

Only those who have permanent pass or government authorised identity cards and those who can manage temporary pass from the offices within Singha Durbar have access.

This provision has either prohibited or troubled many people who have work in the offices but cannot manage temporary pass, the lawmakers said.

The MPs also criticised the government for not being able to begin the reconstruction work even nearly one year after the April 25 earthquake.

After listening to the serious concerns of the MPs, including Arjun Narsingh KC, Aman Lal Modi, Narsingh Chaudhari, Akabal Ahamad Sah, Padhma Narayan Chaudhari, Udaya Nepali Shrestha, Janak Raj Joshi and Milan Kumari Rajbamshi, the panel formed two sub-panels to investigate and monitor the problems and issued instruction to the Ministry of Home Affairs to ease entry into Singha Durbar.

The panel decided to monitor seven categories of government offices that have high flow of government service seekers.

Those seven offices include district administration offices, district development committees, district public health offices, district education offices, land revenue offices, district agriculture offices and regional offices of the CIAA.

In the first stages, districts of provinces 1 and 7 will be monitored for public service delivery and status of their work performance, said the committee’s secretary Jib Raj Budhathoki.

A nine-member sub-committee was also formed today to study the status and need of facilities provided to ex officials and submit a report within 30 days.

Members of the panel include Akabal Ahamad Sah, Aman Lal Modi, Udaya Nepali Shrestha, Kripashur Sherpa, Janak Raj Joshi, Dilanath Giri, Dhyan Govinda Ranjit, Padhma Narayan Chaudhari and Milan Kumari Rajbamsi.

The panel instructed MoHA to make the entrance of Singhdurbar more practical by checking any official valid identity card and conducting security checks.