Water crisis troubles Bojini in its reconstruction

Sindhupalchowk, April. 28: Bojini in Chautara Sangachowkgadhi Municipality–13 of Sindhupalchowk district has a severe water scarcity.

Forty seven families are reconstructing their houses, which were completely damaged in the devastating Gorkha Earthquake 2015. The quake not only turned their houses into ruins but also ate up the remaining sources of water in the village.

But the crisis of water has not deterred the villagers from reconstructing their settlement, named as 'Ekta Basti', but they have joined their hands and building their houses one after another.

Ram Bahadur Shrestha, who was busy in erecting the wall of his house above the lintel, said that they waited enough to get water facility and now using tankers to deliver water required to build their house.

"The government has set the deadline of receiving the second installation of house reconstruction grant by the end of this fiscal year. We are in a haste to construct our houses," he said.

The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) recently extended the deadline of collecting the second tranche of the grant by the end of the current fiscal year.

According to him, the community has found a way to reduce the transportation cost by transporting the construction materials for multiple houses at a time.

"You have to pay the full transportation cost to a truck even if you carry materials only for your home while the truck can carry materials for multiple houses at the same price," he chuckled.

Yam Raj Giri, an inhabitant of the neighbouring village who was assisting Shrestha in construction, said that he was supporting Shrestha as the latter had offered his labour while rebuilding his house a couple of months ago.

He stated that all the villages around the hills are under the shortage of water.

The water is pulled up with the help of a machine from a spring, about 100 metres down the village. But as the water is not sufficient for house construction and other activities, locals hire tankers to fetch water.

Pancha Maya Shrestha shares her grievances, "I have completed the reconstruction of my house except the roofing. You can't imaging the hardships that we went through to manage water."

The Newar community here is working at war footing to build their houses with an aim of developing their village as an integrated settlement.

They want immediate government support for water supply management in the village.

Construction of about half of the houses in the village has been completed while others, except two families, have started the reconstruction of their houses damaged in the quake.

All the houses in the village were completely destroyed in the tremors, and people have been living temporary shelters for the last three years.

People here are building their houses quite fast despite water crisis, said Bhakta Bahadur Giri, a mobile mason, deployed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The development partner is providing technical assistance in the district to support people in rebuilding their houses.

Giri is looking after 89 houses in Thulo Sirubari cluster, under which Bojini lies.

"JICA engineers and mobile masons visit the construction sites and recommend people about the quake resistant house construction measures," said Madhu Sudan Baral, District Project Coordinator of JICA's housing reconstruction programme.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 29 April 2018. 

Infra bank to come into operation within a couple of months.

Kathmandu, Apr. 27: Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank Dr.Chiranjibi Nepal said that the infrastructure bank would come into operation within a couple of months.

The bond with Rs. 20 billion will support in the development of large infrastructure projects, said Dr. Nepal at a programme organised to mark the 63^rd anniversary of the central bank on Friday.

The bank is being established almost after a decade since the government said so. It has also been mentioned in various budget statements.

The central bank had issued the 'Licensing Policy for Infrastructure Development Bank 2017' in last August and called the interested parties to apply for the license.

Dr. Nepal said that all the local units in the country will have at least a banking branch by the end of the current fiscal year 2017/18.

"Of the 753 local units, 394 have branches of commercial banks. Banks have pledged to open their branches in 243 local units by May 14, and for the rest of the 116 local units, the NRB has directed the banks to establish their branches within this fiscal year," he said.

He said that the central bank had given permission to a commercial bank to affiliate with the card switch service of the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI), and issued the letter of intent to 16 companies for online payment service provider.

Former Governor Ganesh BahadurThapa said that only onsite and offsite monitoring were not enough for the safe banking and suggested the NRB applying latest financial technology.

"The NRB should adopt modern management system, coordinate with the crime control agencies and develop a long-term solution mechanism," he said.

He said that the current liquidity crisis was the result of banks' aggressive investment in the non-productive sector to secure higher profits.

Lengthy process to receive grant affects reconstruction

Kathmandu, Apr. 26: The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) Thursday said that the lengthy process to receive the housing grant has affected the post-quake rebuilding.

“Reconstruction of new houses in many villages has been suspended due to delay in distributing the housing grant and low bank capacity. Therefore, there is a need for accelerating the housing grant distribution through monitoring payment status,” said Tapendra Bahadur Khadka, Project Director at the NRA Central Level Programme Implementation Unit (Housing).

He made such remarks at a seminar on ‘From build back better to disaster reduction: Government responsibilities and the role of mutual help’ organised by the NRA with the support of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), to commemorate the 3^rd anniversary of the devastating Gorkha Earthquake 2015.

He also said that quality control and the households which didn’t start construction of their houses were other challenges faced by the reconstruction.

Chief Executive Officer of the NRA Yuba Raj Bhusal said that the government had been making efforts to expedite the reconstruction process. He shared that the government was setting the target to complete reconstruction of all houses by July 2019.

He said that the many donors were yet to disburse the support for reconstruction which they pledged or signed agreements with the government which had also been creating problems in the rebuilding process.

Bhusal urged the donors to bring in more money in the reconstruction.

Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) Kedar Neupane said that securing budget, coordinating with the related ministries, implementing risk assessment and speeding up formulation of local level disaster risk reduction policy were the key challenges for the disaster risk reduction investment in Nepal.

The speakers emphasised that creating a platform of mutual help would be an effective way of reaching out with livelihood support to the vulnerable groups who are the hardest hit by the disaster but often tend to be left behind.

They also stressed the urgent need for the government to take concrete measures for enhancing urban resilience and investment in longer-term disaster risk reduction in the country by operationalising the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Jun Sakuma, Chief Representative of JICA Nepal, emphasised that disaster risk reduction is an integral part of social and economic development, and it is an essential investment should development to be sustainable in the long term.

He reaffirmed JICA’s commitment to continue its support to Nepal and its people for accelerating reconstruction and recovery while further enhancing DRR to attain resilient Nepal. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 27 April 2018. 

All set to operate TIA 21 hours from May 21

Kathmandu, Apr. 26:
The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) is all set to operate the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) 21 hours a day from May 21.

Preparations are underway to hire required human resources, define incentives and maintain technical equipment, CAAN Director General Sanjiv Gautam said in a meeting at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) on Thursday.

The meeting was organised by the ministry to review the progress in the activities that  Culture,Tourism  and Civil Aviation Minister Rabindra Adhikari had announced to complete within 100 days from the assumption of the post.

The only international airport in the country is facing traffic congestion which is forcing the international as well as domestic flights to hold in the sky for several minutes, sometimes more than an hour.

Extending the airport operation time was one of the top priority agenda of Minister Adhikari.
“Review the flight operations at the TIA and reschedule the domestic flights if required. Long haul jets should not be hold in the sky just to make a way for the Twin Otters,” he directed the CAAN.

According to him, no new airlines company will get license for flight operation and the existing companies will also not be allowed to buy additional aircraft until there is another provision or a separate airport is constructed for the domestic flight operations.

The government is conducting feasibility study at Thulichaur and Nagidanda of Kavrepalanchowk district to build an airport.

Minister Adhikari said that required human resources at the TIA should be recruited as soon as possible, because manpower for Pokhara, Bhairahawa and Nijgadh airports should be groomed from now.

He criticised the Nepal Airlines Corporation for its bad flight management.

“I have heard that the NAC pilots hold aircraft in the sky for more than an hour just to get additional allowances and benefits while there is no timely flight. Such situation must be improved within a couple of weeks,” he said while directing the NAC.

He also directed NAC authorities to change the sales agent of the NAC.

NAC aircraft should not fly empty, he said.

The Minister also directed the concerned departments and agencies not to allow construction of view towers atop any hill and not to allocate any budget for such structure.

“Hilltops are towers themselves. What is the use of wasting money to construct the view towers on the hills that are taller than any structures around them?” he questioned.

His 100-day projects include creating a tourism website in Chinese language, formulating and implementing Nepal Aviation Safety Plan (NASP), developing information tourism mobile app, organising Himalayan Travel Mart to promote Nepal in international tourism market, completing Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the Second International Airport at Nijgadh, hiring design review and supervision consultant for Pokhara Regional International Airport, creating documentaries of various touristic sites and facilitating reconstruction of heritages.

He also wants to make amendments to existing Tourism Act, prepare calendar of the festivals of 59 indigenous ethnicities and fix standards for hotels, resorts and home stays.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 27 April 2018. 

Nepal's per capita income grows by over $100 for second year in a row

Kathmandu, Apr. 25: The average income of Nepali citizen has witnessed a 'significant' growth for the second year in a row.

The Per Capita Income (PCI) of Nepalis has touched four digits for the first time and reached US $1,004 – NRs. 106,333 annually.

The PCI that hovered around US $700 - $750 from 2011 to 2016 had reached $862 in the last fiscal 2016/17, the year which witnessed the highest economic growth in more than two decades.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), a statistical body under the National Planning Commission, continuous growth in manufacturing and construction activities after the earthquake had pushed the income up.

CBS Director General Suman Raj Aryal said that the growth in PCI indicates that economic activities had been increased over the years.  

Construction and manufacturing sector are expected to grow by 7.60 per cent and 8.04 per cent respectively.

If the country continued to achieve the same growth, it would meet the income target required to graduate Nepal from the current status of Least Developed Country (LDC) to a developing one by 2022.

Recently, the government had sent a note to the United Nations that it didn't want to graduate from the LDC this year, as per its earlier plan.

Nepal was apprehensive of not meeting the target of Gross National Income (GNI) PCI $1242 in 2018 though the country is eligible to graduate on two other criteria – Human Asset Index and Economic Vulnerability Index.

The CBS has also projected that the economic growth of the current fiscal year will be 5.89 per cent, more than 1.5 percentage point down from the previous year.

According to the revised forecast, the growth rate for the previous fiscal year 2016/17 is 7.39 per cent which was earlier estimated at 6.94 per cent.

However, the projection is higher than the estimates of the Asian Development Bank and World Bank, 4.7 per cent and 4.6 per cent respectively.

India, China, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Pakistan are expected to see the growth of 6.5 per cent, 6.9 per cent, 7.3 per cent, 7.69 per cent and 5.6 per cent respectively.

The CBS projection has shown that the share of primary sector, which includes agriculture, forestry, fishery and mines, is continuously going down.

"Primary sector will have 28.21 per cent share in the economy this year as compared to last year's 29.35," said Ishwari Prasad Bhandari, Director of the CBS.

Composition of GDP (in %)

Sector	2015/16	2016/17	2017/18
Primary Sector	32.17	29.35	28.21
Secondary Sector	13.64	14.09	14.18
Tertiary Sector	54.19	56.56	57.61

Source: CBS

The share of secondary sector, including construction, manufacturing, energy and water, has almost remained constant at 14.18 per cent while the share of tertiary sector – trade, communication, 

transportation, and other service industries – has gone up by more than 1 per cent point to 57.61 per cent.

The primary, secondary and tertiary sectors are expected to grow this year by 2.92 per cent, 8.77 per cent and 6.62 per cent.  

The remittance inflow is projected to go down to 24.25 per cent as compared to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 26.8 per cent in the last fiscal.

Similarly, the final consumption is 84.97 per cent and gross fixed capital formation is 34.11 per cent of the GDP.

Published in The Rising Nepal on 26 April 2018. 

Need to connect farmers with ag research institutions

Kathmandu, Apr. 22:

A Cuban agricultural expert Dr. Fornando Funes has recommended connecting farmers with the agriculture research institutions in the country.

“Farmers should be enabled with the latest knowledge, skills and technology happening in the agriculture sector. Robust connections and interactions between the research institutions such as Nepal Agricultural Research Council and farmers will support the latter in a great deal,” he said while interacting with Nepali journalists on Sunday.

He said that in order to develop the agriculture sector, youth should be attracted to farming and to the villages with the adoption of 21^st century technology and physical infrastructure. An effective value-chain should also be created to support the entrepreneurs and farmers.

Stating that the Cuban National Farmer Association has 150,000 farmers as its members he stressed on farmer to farmer relationship in order to exchange the modern and latest agriculture techniques and use of technology.

“The government must bring a policy to promote micro-agricultural industries in the villages because they will create employment and help in reducing poverty. Ecotourism can also be another sector which is closely connected with the agriculture,” said Dr. Funes.

According to him, energy should be provided to the farmers at the lower cost, and farmers should be motivated to grow multiple crops for organic agriculture and to maintain bio-diversity.

He also recommended for biological control of pests, promoting urban agriculture in open spaces and on the rooftops, and creating an integration of plants and animals.

Dr. Fumes is in Nepal to participate in the follow up seminar of the ‘Make Nepal Green’ conference organised in February 2016.

The follow up seminar will be organised by Sappros-Nepal in Kathmandu on 25 and 26 April. 

“Make Nepal Green builds on the premise of the overlapping results of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Through the implementation of the consortium of organic agriculture, renewable energy, information technology and eco-tourism, we aim at ending poverty and hunger, achieving gender equality and promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth,” the organiser said.

Published in The Rising Nepal on 23 April 2018.

Online system launched for people to pay taxes

Kathmandu, Apr. 25: The government has launched an e-payment system in revenue management from Wednesday.

It will facilitate the tax-payers to pay their taxes from anywhere with the help of the online-based system.

The new Information Technology (IT) based facility was inaugurated by Finance Minister Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada, and came into effect from Taxpayers' Service Office in Thamel.

The online service will be expanded to all over the country by the end of the current fiscal year 2017/18.

With the help of the e-payment service, tax-payers can pay their taxes from any bank, and it will be updated in the government system in real time.

However, only five banks are included in the system till 16 July 2018.

"The taxpayers can pay the amount without any charges. They can pay the money from others' bank account as well," said Deputy Comptroller General Yadu Bhattarai.

He said that although the tax payments could only be made through the ConnectIPS of the Nepal Clearing House Limited (NCHL) for the time being, payment could be made from any bank, connectIPS of Nepal Clearing House portals of tax administration agencies and other online payment vendors from the next fiscal year 2018/19.

Tax payers can access the Revenue Management Information System (RMIS) of tax administration and prepare their voucher, and can pay the tax online from their bank account by registering themselves in the RMIS and ConnectIPS.

The ConnectIPS account of the taxpayers should be connected with a bank account.  

Revenue Secretary Shishir Kumar Dhungana said that 26 districts in the country had the electronic fund transfer system which would be expanded to all districts by the end of this fiscal year.

"The new system will help Nepal improve its doing business environment as it drastically reduces the processes and time to pay the taxes. We are hopeful that it will also increase tax compliance," he said.

Finance Minister Dr. Khatiwada's first decision was to design and implement an electronic system for revenue payment from the first day of the Nepali New Year. However, as the amendment of e-payment procedure and its approval was delayed, the government couldn't implement on the target date, and it was delayed by 12 days.

"This is a good beginning. There will be improvements in the system according to the feedback from the users in terms of access, information and technology," said Dr. Khatiwada.

He said that the government wanted to create an environment where the service seekers and government officers didn't meet face to face and all the jobs would be performed electronically.

He cited an example of e-bidding at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport where the electronic system had saved about one-third of the budget.

Published in The Rising Nepal on 26 April 2018. 

House reconstruction satisfactory

Third Anniversary of the Gorkha Earthquake 2015

Kathmandu, Apr. 24: As it has been three years since the devastating Gorkha Earthquake 2015 hit the nation and caused a heavy loss of lives and properties, there has been significant progress in rebuilding of the private houses.

As per the statistics of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA), by Tuesday, reconstruction of approximately 141,626 houses is completed while more than 436,000 houses are being rebuilt in the quake-hit 32 districts.

The NRA has been saying that its top priority was to complete the reconstruction of the private houses in the 5-year tenure of the reconstruction body.

House reconstruction is significant in terms of shelter, security, social prestige and wellbeing of the family members. People in temporary shelters are more vulnerable to various diseases and other hazards as well.

"The NRA has aimed at completing 450,000 houses by mid-July 2018. Therefore, we have focused our efforts in that direction – human resources for the reconstruction are being trained, installations of the house reconstruction grant are paid in simplified manner, retrofitting of the partially houses is being commenced very soon," said Chief Executive Officer of the NRA Yuba Raj Bhusal.

Last month the reconstruction body had concluded that though there had been significant progress in the rebuilding drive, retrofitting couldn't catch the desired speed, and has decided to run a separate campaign for retrofitting private houses that received minor damage in the quake but are fit to live in with general maintenance.

About 24,991 houses in all 32 districts are in the retrofitting list.

Similarly, the government is constructing more than 18,000 houses for the vulnerable people including elderly, single women, orphans below 16 years of age and people with complete and severe disability.

The NRA said that about 6,000 vulnerable households have been constructing their house with government grant but more than 18,000 elderly people and senior single women and children below 16 years of age are unable to build their house themselves even with the government support.

There has been significant progress in grant distribution with 696,809 families, of total 767,705 beneficiaries, receiving the first tranche of the grant.

Likewise, the NRA has approved grant application of 371,691 families for the second tranche while 328,808 families have received second instalment of the money.

"About 118,662 households have been found eligible for the final instalment of the grant. 93,019 families have already received the money," said Bhusal.

He said in a press meet on Tuesday that of the 7,553 damaged educational institutions, 3,613 were reconstructed and 1,719 are being rebuilt.

Similarly, 586 health institutions are rebuilt and 180 are under construction.

Of the damaged 379 government buildings 220 were rebuilt and 147 are under construction.

Likewise, reconstruction of 100 heritages has been completed while 329 are under construction, some of them with foreign support.

The quake had killed about 9,000 people and damaged properties, including private houses, and educational, health, water supply and transport infrastructure, wort Rs. 900 billion.

About 900,000 houses were completely or partially damaged in the tremors.  

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 25 April 2018. 

Trans-boundary collaboration needed to address disaster risk at Koshi Basin

Kathmandu, Apr. 23: Experts have urged for a trans-boundary collaboration, including sharing of knowledge and fostering practices that address the trans-boundary scale of disaster, for the reduction of disaster risk in the Koshi Basin.

Upstream-downstream linkages in the Koshi Basin can be a basis for shared disasters and  provide opportunities for disaster risk reduction and livelihood improvement, they said while deliberating at the International Conference on 'Mountain development in a context of global change with special focus on the Himalayas'.

Noting that although efforts have been made to improve disaster risk reduction in the basin, the DRR policies lack a multi-hazard risk assessment, they also suggest the institutions and stakeholders in the region collaborating for and adopting a standardised, multi-hazard risk assessment approach.

Wei Deng, Professor at the Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment (IMHE), China, said that a robust network should be created among China, Nepal and India in order to study the disaster risks and remedies, livelihoods and environment in the Koshi Basin.

He was speaking at a special session on 'Climate change adaptation and disaster risk management in the Koshi River Basin' and Workshop on National Natural Science Foundation China (NSFC) – International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) joint projects.

The region, which is home to about 40 million people, has multi-hazard environment such as floods, landslides and draught.

Disasters in the region often have cascading trans-boundary impact with upstream and downstream linkages. In addition, an increase in the incidence of extreme weather events due to climate change and environmental degradation is expected to magnify the frequency and impact of such disasters, said a note on the topic published by ICIMOD.

Nilhari Neupane of ICIMOD said that women, poor people and marginalised communities are more vulnerable to disasters due to their poor or no access to reliable information of disaster risks and knowledge on coping with the natural hazards.

"Mountainous districts in the Koshi Basin are the most vulnerable followed by the mid-hills and plains. The mountainous and mid-hill districts are more vulnerable in terms of resource stress and ecological security while the plain is more vulnerable in terms of development pressure," he said.

He also said that the whole basin lacked management capacity, and suggested that adaptation strategies should focus at local and sub-basin characteristics rather than a blanked approach.

Yiping Fang, an expert from IMHE, said that lives, livelihoods and properties were affected by the disasters which might push people into poverty.

Recent studies have concluded that the rural livelihood, which is closely related to the environmental changes, is the key point for the sustainability research of the basin. But rural livelihood in the Koshi River Basin faces the dual challenges from water resources and water disasters.

The local communities are unable to use the water in their benefits such as drinking and irrigation while the out of 21 potentially critical glacial lakes, 18 are in the Koshi basin.

The six-day conference began on Friday will conclude on 26 April.

It is being organised by the Central Department of Geography, Tribhuvan University, NSFC, ICIMOD, Nepal Academy of Science and Technology, Nepal Geographical Society, Sichuan Geographical Society China, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique France, and Deparrtment of Land Science and Biogeography at Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 24 April. 

Nepal and China agree to implement past deals

Kathmandu, Apr. 21: Nepal and China have agreed to implement all the past bilateral agreements, including those signed during the visit of erstwhile Prime Ministers KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda'.

“The two countries have agreed to implement all the past agreements. We have similar views on cross-border connectivity - such as railways, roads, aviation, communication and transmission lines,” Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali said at the Tribhuvan International Airport upon his arrival after concluding a six-day official visit of China.

According to him, both the neighbours want to develop a trans-Himalayan Multidimensional Transport Network, and it will be materialized in the near future. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has also urged India to involve in such network.

The development of infrastructures along the trans-Himalayan region is critical for promoting economic opportunities by ensuring efficient movement of people, services and goods across the region, he had said while delivering his speech on ‘Nepal-China Relations and Development Prospects in Trans-Himalayan Region’ at Sichuan University, Chengdu on 20^th April.

He stated that to attain this goal, cooperation and understanding was required to optimize the benefits of trans-Himalayan connectivity.

“Therefore, Nepal and China should focus their cooperation arrangement for building the critical infrastructure in the Himalayan region and remove the barriers for a seamless movement of people, goods and services,” he said.

He said that Nepal had urged China to develop Keyrung-Rasuwagadhi-Kathmandu-Lumbini Railway project with Chinese grant.

“Nepal and China discussed on various modalities of cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). We expect China to build the cross-border railway with its grant support,” he said.

He said that the Detailed Project Report (DPR) preparation works of the Keyrung-Lumbini railway project was on the final stage and will be completed very soon.

Before embarking on his first official trip to China, Minister Gyawali had said that Nepal and China were closely working on the BRI, and deliberating on the modalities of cooperation under the Xi Jinping proposed mega-project.

Gyawali said that Nepali delegation requested Chinese side to upgrade Rasuwagadhi-Keyrung and Tatopani-Zhangmu border points, and open more border points in future.

“I have also urged to bring the Tatopani border in operation as soon as possible,” he said.

According to him, Wang has assured to provide additional favour to Nepali products in China to increase their market access there.

As Nepal wants to establish Consulate General’s Office in Chengdu to enhance its trade in Sichuan province of China since political, economic, business and people to people relations between Nepal and Chengdu have been increasing, FM Gyawali had requested the Governor of the province Dr. Yin Lee to support in establishing the consulate.

He said that Nepal needs to send more goods to China in order to reduce the alarming trade deficit.

He met with the high officials of China Three Georges Company and Sichuan Investment Group Company, and urged to invest in five priority areas of Nepal – road network, cross-country transmission lines, and modernisation of agriculture, tourism promotion and people to people relations.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 22 April 2018. 

JICA holds photo exhibition on reconstruction

Lalitpur, Apr. 20: 

Chief Executive Officer of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) Yuba Raj Bhusal said that the government had given priority to the rebuilding of the private houses.

I would like to urge the international community and humanitarian organisations to support us in the reconstruction of houses other infrastructure, he said while inaugurating the Photo Exhibition on Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)’s recovery and reconstruction efforts in Nepal at the Labim Mall, Pulchowk.

The exhibition was organised to mark the 3^rd anniversary of the devastating Gorkha Earthquake 2015.

Chief Representative of JICA Nepal Jun Sakuma said that the exhibition was organised to highlight the progress and achievements made in the last three years and to promote awareness and understanding of JICA’s support based on the ‘Build Back Better’ principle. 

The exhibition was jointly inaugurated by Bhusal and Sakuma. It will run till Tuesday.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 21 April 2018

High misappropriation of funds in local bodies: AG

Kathmandu, Apr. 17:

If one believes the report of the Office of the Auditor General (OAG), corruption has already become a new fashion in the newly formed local bodies.

About 278 local bodies have spent Rs. 228 million without any invoice or record, and 207 local units have not collected Rs. 112 million of its internal income. 

The OAG report for fiscal year 2016/17 has mentioned many such cases, which indicate that the local bodies are not sincere in keeping their accounts transparent.

However, some of the local bodies got their elected representatives much later than the end of the last fiscal year. The first phase of the local elections was held in Province 3, 4 and 6 on May 14, 2017, the second phase polls were organised in Province 1, 5 and 7 on June 21 and the third phase election was held in Province 2 on September 18. 

Some of the unaccounted expenditures were made before the elected representatives assumed their responsibilities. 

"As many as 675 local bodies have made payment of Rs. 50.5 million without raising the TDS (Tax Deductible at Source). Similarly, 71 local units have not submitted Rs. 219 million to the treasury," mentions the report. 

According to the OAG, local bodies in Bhaktapur, Panchthar, Chitwan and some other districts have paid Rs. 350.5 million for goods and services, such as public construction and furniture, which they procured without competitive bidding – an act which is barred by the Public Procurement Act, 2008.

The act has a provision that procurement should not be done by fragmenting the project or programme. 

Likewise, the Kathmandu Metropolitan City Office has procured only one thirds of its goods through competitive bidding. 

The KMC procured goods worth Rs. 152.2 million, of which goods worth Rs. 54.3 million were bought through bidding process while goods worth Rs. 51.5 million were procured by asking quotations from three business firms and materials worth Rs. 46.5 million were procured directly. 

The OAG has stated that such activities are against the rules, they need to be controlled. 

It has found that Rs. 221.6 million of the social security money has been remaining idle for more than a year in various bank accounts of the beneficiaries. According to the rules, if the account of any beneficiary does not make any transaction, the money should be withdrawn. 

Likewise, Hetauda Sub-Metropolitan City of Makwanpur district had misappropriated Rs. 1.13 million by giving it away to 23 organisations and individuals against the law. 

Chhayanath Municipality and Saru and Mugumakarmarong Rural Municipality of Mugu district also misappropriated Rs. 2.1 million, which includes about Rs. 1 million from the capital budget.

Likewise, property and liability of the erstwhile 3,157 Village Development Committees (VDCs) were not transferred to the newly created local units by the end of the last fiscal. 

According to the Economic Procedure Rules 2007, if any office was to be closed or merged with another office, the details of goods in the office should be recorded within 35 days of the decision, and the goods should go to the custody of the respective ministry or department. 

Though the government had decided to restructure the local bodies on March 10, 2017, the liabilities and properties of the erstwhile VDCs were not transferred to the newly created local bodies. 

"About Rs. 157 million in liabilities of 542 VDCs have not been transferred to 120 rural municipalities," said the report.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 18 April 2018.