Graft can't be checked unless the political parties in power act honestly
APRIL 4
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on Sunday filed a case at the Special Court against retired non-gazetted officer, Raghunath Ghimire, on charges of accumulating wealth beyond his known sources of income.
The constitutional anti-graft body has charged that Ghimire embezzled Rs 21,446,657, which is beyond his known sources of income during the check period from November 1995 to December 2022.
Apart from confiscating his principal amount, the CIAA has also sought the same amount as fine, two years of jail sentence as well as seizure of both movable and immovable property earned or accumulated through the mobilisation of the unknown sources of income.
When he joined government service in 1995, he mainly served at the airport customs office, various customs offices and the Department of Revenue Investigation.
A CIAA statement states that Ghimire hid the illegally-earned wealth in the name of his wife and other family members, invested in various companies and bought land and shares. His income along with his wife and daughter, employees saving fund, loans from various banks and financial institutions, land sale and house restoration stands at Rs 52,516,327. But his accumulated income including all his activities is Rs 73,962,984.
It may be recalled that Ghimire and a chartered ac-countant, named Raghunath Sharma, were accused of manipulating the tax rates on the night of May 28, 2022 at the instruction of then finance minister Janardan Sharma, who reportedly instructed four senior Finance Ministry officials to follow suggestions of the two unauthorised individu-als.
The last minute changes in the taxation benefitted some select business groups while harming the others and causing huge loss to the government treasury. The CCTV footage of the meeting between the government officials and the duo accused was deleted conspicuously to kill the evidence. A parliamentary investigation panel was formed to look into the alleged incident.
But the panel acquitted both the individuals and then finance minister from the allegation for want of proof. The CIAA has estimated that Ghimire has accumulated wealth worth Rs 500 million, which is beyond his known sources of income.
If a non-gazetted officer like Ghimire can accumulate such a huge amount of wealth, one can well imagine how much wealth other high ranking officials must have earned misusing their authority. Corruption and bad governance are the chronic diseases the country has been facing, especially after the restoration of democracy.
This all happens when persons are appointed to the anti-graft body based on personal affiliation with the powers that be, not on merit basis. It is an open-secret that all the persons who are appointed to the CIAA have political connection with the powerful leaders of the major political parties, who want to be protected from being charge-sheeted on corruption cases. Ghimire is a small fry. Other policy-level corruption takes place through the Council of Ministers, but the CIAA cannot look into it. Nepal ranked 117th in Transparency International's 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index, which has remained unchanged from its 2020 ranking. Corruption cannot be rooted out from the government machinery unless the political parties in power are honest in controlling it.
A version of this article appears in the print on April 5, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
