Corruption at the local levels is disturbing as they need to strive towards self-help
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has charge-sheeted nine persons, including the former chief administrator officer (CAO) of Bhimdatta Municipality, at the Special Court for their involvement in corruption. They were indicted by the anti-graft body for causing a huge loss of revenue to the state while awarding the contract to Shree Bhawani Construction Pvt. Ltd. to extract river products from the Mahakali River in 2021- 22. According to the CIAA, the municipality officials, who include the CAO, account officer, engineer, section officer and accountant, had awarded the contract to Shree Bhawani Construction without considering the minimum rate mentioned in the Sudurpaschim Finance Act, 2022, causing a revenue loss of Rs 54 million to the state. The defendants had embezzled the amount under different headings, such as VAT, rate of river products and bid price, and shared the spoils among themselves. The CIAA has demanded that the court recover different amounts – ranging from Rs 34 million and fines to Rs 20 million – from each of the municipal officials and Rs 54 million from each of the directors of the construction firm.
A large number of local levels have few avenues and resources for generating local revenue. For most of them, extraction of river products, such as sand, stones and boulders provide the only source of revenue. So there are high chances of corruption while awarding the contracts for it to private companies. This, perhaps, also explains why the local levels look the other way when such extraction of river products along the Tarai belt from east to west is a huge such impact on the local environment. Such corruption at the local levels is particularly disturbing because the local governments are supposed to strive towards self-sufficiency by generating local revenue. Since the federal republic was divided into seven provinces and 753 municipalities and rural municipalities, following the promulgation of the new constitution in 2015, they have been receiving huge funds from the central government under different headings year after year. When the local level officials engage in corruption and embezzle the revenue, they will forever be dependent on the central government for the largesse to run the government. It is thus necessary to ensure good governance in the registration, licensing, renewal, management and identification of natural resources, especially river products, and their protection, extraction and use.
The CIAA has done a good job in booking them for embezzling revenue. However, the question people keep asking is, why is it that the anti-corruption body is only after small fry and unable to indict people in high places for corruption? What is the CIAA silent on the policy-level corruption that takes place so routinely in the country even when there is such an uproar in the media? Is it because the commissioners are appointed based on bhagbandha among the political parties and so they must prove their loyalty to the party bigwigs who picked them? If corruption is to be rooted out completely in the country, we need commissioners who have integrity and will act independently without fear once they assume their posts.
Register vital events
The government has launched a Personal Event Registration Week campaign to encourage people to get their personal events registered at their respective local levels. The campaign, which will continue till April 20, has called on the people to get vital events such as birth, marriage, divorce, migration and death registered with the ward offices of the concerned local levels within 35 days of the occurrence of such events. Registration of personal events is mandatory for getting legal identity of citizens and for receiving services and facilities from the government agencies.
However, studies have shown that many people show no interest in getting their personal events registered within the stipulated time due to lack of awareness. Those who fail to register the personal events in time land in trouble when it comes to receiving government services and facilities they are entitled to. The Home Ministry has urged all to get the date of birth of a child registered with the concerned ward office in time so that they can get admission to school. Data have shown that only six per cent births are officially registered with the ward offices within the deadline. The elected officials at the local levels can play a vital role in raising awareness in this regard.
