The political parties and government must show determination to eliminate or minimize the evil influences of foreign money

Over the years foreign assistance has increased in Nepal, rising in the fiscal year 2015-16 by 5.22 per cent to slightly over one billion US dollars.

But more than one-third of it, going by the figures of the year concerned, was spent by the donors themselves on projects of their choice, not through the government channels according to its priorities. This state of affairs is often attributed to donors’ lack of trust in the Government of Nepal regarding the utilization of the aid money.

But whether such donor-spent money has gone to meet the country’s most pressing needs is a matter for research and analysis. This situation also reflects a major failure of successive governments to decide how and where all the aid money is spent in Nepal.

Thus, 37 per cent of the total aid money was spent on off-budget projects, according to the Development Cooperation Report of 2015-16 unveiled by the Ministry of Finance on Sunday. Too much dependence on foreign aid reduces a country’s ability to look after its own interests.

Hardly any development projects and programmes of the government are run wholly by domestic resources. This state of affairs has continued ever since the end of the Rana regime, without showing any signs of abatement even through the quarter century of multiparty rule since 1990 and a decade of republican setup.

What comes is readily accepted. Nepal received more foreign aid through multilateral channels (58 pc) rather than through bilateral channels. Among the multilateral financiers, the World Bank topped the list whereas in bilateral aid USAID came on top.

The sector-wise recipients of aid in 2015-16 from the highest downwards were the energy sector, local development, education, and health, while in the year before health had topped the list.

Unveiling the report, Finance Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara made remarks which reflect the government’s weakness, not only of the present one but the past ones as well. He admitted that foreign donors often focus on running different projects according to their priority and spend accordingly.

And he spoke of the government trying to encourage donors to run projects to match government policy and interests and demands of the country. But such statements and complaints which also occurred in the past many times without any improvement taking place are not of much importance unless the government can make the donors mend their ways and its own in the process.

Who can say that some of the projects may not be harming the interests of Nepal and Nepalis? Add to it the huge unknown amounts of foreign money that pour into the country through various non-governmental channels and are spread all over the country to achieve the objectives of the foreign spenders.

Which those objectives and targets are even the government does not have a good knowledge of because it has been unable to rein in such donors and strictly regulate where and how such money is spent.

A lot needs to be done in these areas but first the political parties and government must show a determination to eliminate or at least minimize the evil influences of foreign money.

Clean-up drive

Learning lessons from the mega Bagmati River Clean-up Campaign locals in Bhaktapur have also geared up to clean their rivers that have converted into sewerage and dumping sites.

The locals of Bhaktapur have formed a Hanumante River Clean-up Committee which will supervise the clean-up campaign of the river. The committee has hired two dozers and 12 tippers to clear garbage and debris dumped into the river which is blocked during the monsoon causing havoc to settlements close to the river banks.

The debris collected from the river, a tributary of the Bagmati River, will be disposed of at safe places.

Most of the industries set up in Bhaktapur empty their industrial wastes into the river which ultimately pollutes the Bagmati River. Initially, the committee has a plan to clean-up one kilometer stretch of the river with locals’ participation.

The municipalities, however, must come out with a long-term plan to make the water bodies clean taking punitive action against those who contribute to polluting such rivers.

Locals and industries must not be allowed to connect sewage, dump garbage, dirt and industrial wastes into the river.