The lack of accountants means backlogs of accounting work, including that of accounting for donor’s funds

Project implementation has been always weak in Nepal, and this has always led to low spending of capital budget, affecting development no matter how much money may be increased in the national budget every year.

There are a number of factors responsible for this perennial state of affairs. The lack of accountants in many government offices and projects, now put at 200, has been cited as one more reason why the capital outlay cannot be fully utilized.

The absence of accountants means disruption of a lot of work, such as preparation of procurement documents. Without accountants, other work also suffers, though, because accountants take care of more than just record-keeping, which is one of the functions of accounting.

The offices where the posts of accountant have been lying vacant for a long time include road offices, municipalities, district development committees, district education offices, irrigation divisional offices, the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction, and other local bodies.

It is sad that while many government offices are accused of being overstaffed, the vacancies for accountants have not been filled on time. This shows the incapability of the appointing offices concerned.

Any government employee can be asked to distribute the salaries and allowances, but the main functions of the accountant cannot be discharged by anybody.

According to the Financial Comptroller General’s Office (FCGO), 70 percent of the capital budget remains to be spent as of mid-June. It is also reported that the

accountants deputed by the District Treasury Controller’s Office (DTCO) do not want to take responsibility as they are deputed as a stopgap measure.

This kind of problem is not of recent origin but the efforts to correct such deficiencies do not seem to have been taken properly so that this problem has dogged project implementation from year to year.

The lack of accountants means backlogs of accounting work, including that of accounting for donor’s funds. This will surely lead to delays in aid disbursement as well.

The blame for the unfilled vacancies is attributed to the Ministry of General Administration (MoGA) by FCGO officials on the ground that it had given permission for the appointment of only eight accountants out of the required number, 200.

This is said to be due to the pressure of the civil servants’ trade union. Why such pressure has come, if any, and why the MoGA yielded to it, seriously affecting government work, including development work, is a big question that should be answered by the government.

Indeed, trade unions have been the bane of efficiency and impartiality that the government offices are supposed to demonstrate in its discharge of duties, as they have tended to go beyond their proper jurisdiction and to interfere in various matters like transfers of employees for personal gain of office-bearers.

The government, of whatever party or a combination of parties, must successfully resist the unhealthy pressure of trade unions, only listening seriously to their legitimate concerns.

Any failure to do this cannot be cited as an excuse for non-performance of the government agencies concerned.

Local bodies

The Parliamentary Development Committee has given a clear guideline to the Local Bodies Restructuring Commission to make population, geography, access to transport services and infrastructure, natural resources and capacity of revenue collection as the basis for restructuring the local administrative units.

Experts who were invited to the meeting also echoed that population, geography, financial viability and resources should be assessed before delineating boundaries of the local bodies.

The commission led by Balananda Poudel said it has already started soliciting suggestions from all sides before giving its final report to the government which will conduct local bodies’ elections on the basis of its recommendations.

The commission also held discussions with the Election Commission which has advised the Poudel panel to keep intact the existing boundaries of the VDCs fearing serious problem in managing the voter list prepared VDC-wise.

Local bodies are considered to be the bedrock of grassroots democracy. But their elections have not been held since 1997 when the last local elections were held.