The latest Transparency International (TI) survey states that corruption in Nepal has jumped over the past one year, at least vis-a-vis other countries. The country has slipped 27 places compared with last year. If TI’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2005 is any guide, Nepal, which was in the 90th position on the CPI among 146 countries surveyed last year, has now fared worse by falling to the 117th position among 159 countries this year. Nepal holds a dismal score of 2.5 on the CPI scale of 10.

All successive governments — during the Panchayat, multiparty system or under the present era of Article 127— have made myriad public commitments to crack down on this evil. But they have produced little results. The governments under Article 127, all the more so the present one, have talked big on corruption. In fact, the slippage of 27 places has happened during this period, and which, certainly, does not reflect very well on the present dispensation. The public is fed up with promises that are not kept, despite anti-corruption agencies such as the CIAA and, currently, the RCCC, which combines the unprecedented powers of investigator, prosecutor and judge.

Fighting corruption is mainly a matter of intention and it requires putting in place effective mechanisms with proper and adequate manpower and resources. Unfortunately, the anti-corruption slogan is allegedly often made by those in power just to take revenge on their political rivals. The government and its agencies hardly ever act on prima facie evidence of corruption to initiate proceedings against the suspects. Over the past forty years, the Auditor General’s annual reports, for example, have pointed out myriad irregularities, but after the submission of the reports, little has ever been done to mend matters. Moreover, the government’s latest ordinance to amend some media laws is likely to curtail the media’s ability to report freely on corruption stories involving the high and the mighty, thus weakening whatever deterrence the media had supplied against corruption. The bulk of corruption in Nepal has been due to an utter lack of accountability on the part of the holders of powers as well as the lack of transparency in government transactions.