Kathmandu, April 13

The Parliament Secretariat has spent millions of rupees distributing incentives to its employees, according to the 56th annual report of Office of the Auditor General.

The report states that the PS must refund around 37 million rupees to the government as it spent the amount without permission from the Ministry of Finance.

“The secretariat should return Rs 36,917,000, which it distributed to employees without MoF’s permission for five months from January 22 to July 16 last year, to the government, ” the report states.

The secretariat stopped distributing incentives after January 21 following a warning letter from the MoF. Starting from the first Constituent Assembly, PS employees received incentives equivalent to 80 per cent of their salaries each month.

A PS official told THT there was no way the incentives could be returned. “Employees were given incentives as per the decision of the Parliament Secretariat Management Committee,” the official said. “We were paid for extra time and odd-hour services,” he added.

The report also stated that the PS had bypassed Public Procurement Regulations.

The PPR states that public offices should open tender if the cost of procurement exceeded two million rupees.

But, the PS made procurements worth Rs 29,700,000 on its own. According to the report, the total arrears stands at Rs 74,090,000.

The report also tells the Election Commission to be careful while procuring vehicles.

During local level elections in June 2017, the EC had bought five cars which cost Rs 23,200,000 each. “The EC should only buy things that are required,” the report concluded. The report also asked the EC to be careful while purchasing other materials for election and to follow procurement regulation.