MCC taskforce submits reports, suggesting amendments to provisions

Kathmandu, Feb. 21

The task force on the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Nepal has concluded that the much-hyped grant agreement with the United States of America should not be implement as it was agreed upon.

It has found the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) – a bilateral US foreign aid agency established by the US Congress during George Bush administration in 2004 – had links with the Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS).

“The grant agreement must not be executed in Nepal without changing some of the provisions as it can be counterproductive in for the country,” said the leader of the task force and Former Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal.

The task force has submitted its report to the chairmen duo—KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) on Friday.

It had Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali and Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Standing Committee Member Bhim Rawal as the members.

However, Khanal did not disclose the provisions that needed to be amended in the agreement and said that the content of the report would be made public in three days.

Although the MCA agreement does not mention about the IPS and has no clear links with the latter, the task force has found it dubious as various US leaders and senior military officers had mentioned its links with the controversial US Policy called IPS which allegedly aims at containing China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

“For the last three weeks, we went through multiple documents related to the agreement and execution procedures and found that there is no mention or link with the IPS,” said Khanal, “But when the people in the US authority said that the both were connected, we cannot ignore it. This has created confusion among the people and leaders”

Regarding the statement of the US Embassy in Kathmandu that the MCA agreement couldn’t be amended, leader Khanal said that the pact was not the Bible or Vedas which was beyond the modification.

The task force has also found that some of the provisions in the agreement were already amended through correspondences between Nepal government and MCC.

The report will soon be presented to the Secretariat Meeting of the NCP, following which the amendment will be finalised.

The ruling NCP had formed a task force about three weeks ago to look into the provisions of the MCA grant agreement after its own central committee members and ministers raised questions in the pact saying that it would undermine the sovereignty and interest of the country.

Signed in 2017 after many years’ effort and meeting the MCC criteria for democracy and development, the MCA is supposed to bring US$500 million which would be used in constructing the cross-border electricity transmission lines and upgrading the strategic roads.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 22 February 2020.