Kathmandu, Jan. 7
Bisheshwar Yadav, Mayor of Kamala Municipality
of Dhanusha district, is in Kathmandu to find 'political solution' to the
ongoing deadlock at his local body so that the budget could be unveiled for the
current Fiscal Year 2022/23.
As per the constitutional provision, the
local governments should announce their budget for any fiscal year about 21
days before the new season begins on Saun 1 of Nepali calendar that usually
falls in mid-July. If the budget is not presented at the respective local
assembly and approved thereof, no government can spend a penny for any
administrative, development and even welfare activities.
But it’s about six months since Kamala is
running without budget. After the country was ushered into federalism with the
creation of three levels of governments various local expenditures such as the
salary of teachers and health workers, small project development and cost of
other local activities are mobilised through the local bodies.
The federal and provincial governments
allocate various grants for the local governments so that they run their
everyday activities as well as development works in a better manner, meet the
demands of people and improve service delivery. However, these grants also can
be mobilised only after including in the local budget and allocating for specific
projects and programmes.
Since they couldn't get their salaries for
the past five months in a row, teachers and health workers have threatened the
local government of a strike anytime. "I have fallen on the feet of
teachers to beg some time so that I could create an environment to pass the
budget and run the economic affairs smoothly," Yadav said with The Rising
Nepal.
Mayor Yadav said that the budget was
obstructed purely for 'political' reasons. Yadav contested election held in May
last year from Nepali Congress defeating Pashupati Yadav who is the district
chairman of Janata Samajwadi Party. Likewise, Shiladevi Mandal of the NC was
elected as the Deputy Mayor defeating JSP candidate Punita Kumari.
"The opposition party boycotted the
government's policy and programmes and filed a case at the High Court in
Janakpurdham. The case is still pending and we are helpless," he said
while expecting that the court might conclude the hearing on the case within next
week so that the local body could initiate a fresh process to pass the budget.
Meanwhile, Kamala is running without an administrative head. Yadav expressed
his hope that Kamala would get the administrative chief by Monday.
While only a week of the first half of the current fiscal year 2022/23 is remaining, seven local bodies have failed to announce the budget, an estimate of income and expenditure, for this year. They all are from Madhes Province.
Four municipalities – Karjanha of Sihara
district, Kamala and Nagrain of Dhanusha, Baudhimai of Sarlahi – and three
rural municipalities – Aurahi of Siraha, Bishnu of Sarlahi and Yamunamai of
Rautahat – are the local bodies running without budget for the entire first
half of the current fiscal year 2022/23.
Three weeks ago, the list also had another name, Duduwa Rural
Municipality of Banke district in Lumbini Province. Chairman of Duduwa, Narendra Kumar Chaudhary,
presented the budget after five months since the current fiscal year began.
The local body had found a consensus among
the warring political parties after the employees padlocked the office of the
local body.
The Rising Nepal had carried a
news report on December 21, 2022 that due to the failure in bringing a budget
for this year, all works including development and construction have come to a
standstill, employees are not paid and even basic medicines like Cetamol are not
available at the health posts there.
About a month ago, health workers
and teachers had warned the local government that they would resort to protest
programmes if their salary and allowance were not paid. The health workers had
submitted a memorandum, including the protest programme to Chief Administrative
Officer of Duduwa, Krishna Prasad Paudel.
Chairman Chaudhary had then said
that the opposition parties had obstructed the village council meeting and
because of it budget couldn't be approved.
In Duduua, too, the opposition
parties blamed the chairman of non-cooperation while Chaudhary said that the
CPN (UML) and JSP rallied against him – because he and deputy chair Shaida Bano
were elected from the NC.
The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General
Administration (MoFAGA) had requested the eight local bodies to announce the
budget immediately while other concerned agencies like the Commission for the
Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had inquired about the situation in
those units.
"Since your governments have failed in
passing the policy and programmes or budgets for the current fiscal year,
programmes of social security, education, health and governance have been
affected. The ministry has received complaints about this," the MoFAGA
said in a letter to those local governments.
The ministry maintains an online database
of the details about the budgets of the local governments.
However, the federal and provincial
governments can't direct the local bodies in any of their internal affairs,
they have a full autonomy guaranteed by the constitution. It’s at the
discretion of the local assembly to pass the budget.
"Budget allocations can be implemented
only after passing the budget from the legislative body of the local
government. Federal and provincial governments can't intervene in the process,
they can only facilitate in it," said Dr. Uma Shankar Prasad, former
member of the National Planning Commission.
As it was visible in case of Kamala and
Duduwa, the impasse in case of budget is the conflict among the political
parties, according to Dr. Prasad. The conflict has two facets: between the
mayor/chairperson and deputy mayor/deputy chair or elected chief/deputy chief
and opposition political parties that lost in the election.
As all
the local governments that failed to present the budget by now are from Madhes
Province, he said that the reasons could be found in the deep-rooted culture of
feudal society in the region.
"We have semi-feudal societies in
Madhes that deny transition to the concept of modern egalitarian society. The
complexity among the political class created by the feudal culture could be the
major reason behind this conflict," said Dr. Prasad.
Chairman of the Municipal Association of
Nepal (MuAN), Bhim Prasad Dhungana, who is the Mayor of Neelakantha
Municipality in Dhading, seconded Dr. Prasad. "The reason behind the
failure to announce the budget is not related to the capacity of the elected
representatives or administrative staff. It’s because of the political
conflict," he said.
He maintained that the MuAN is
communicating with the local governments that failed to present the budget of
this year and would support them in finding solutions to the crisis. Meanwhile,
he suggested that the elected representatives should be accommodating the
demands and prescriptions from the opposition parties as well.
Last year, 12 local bodies were running
without budget until March or by the end of the third quarter of the fiscal
year. The main reason behind this malady then was also the conflict of interest
among the representatives of the respective local body, especially between the
chair and vice-chair. A total of 151 local governments failed to present their
budget in time last year 2021/22.
However, the number dropped down to 71
local governments – 30 municipalities and 41 rural municipalities, this year.
The local bodies should complete their
budgetary process in seven steps. In the first step, they should create
pre-planning including the estimates of income and expenditure so that they
could submit it to the federal government and get the budget ceiling from the
latter.
After getting the ceiling of the budget
from the federal government, local governments should estimate the sources of
income and set the budget limit. Then plans and programmes of villages or towns
are selected. In the fourth step, selection and prioritization of plans at ward
level happens which is followed by the formulation of budget and programmes.
In the sixth step, the local governments
get the budget passed from the municipal executive. In the final step, the
budget is passed from the municipal assembly.
The budget-making process begins from
mid-January every year, about more than five months before formulating the
final budget statement. The local bodies should submit the estimated details of
their income and expenditure by mid-January and obtain the ceiling of the
budget by mid-April from the federal and provincial governments.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 8 January 2023.
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