No refund for visits without proof: PMO

KATHMANDU, Oct 2: Following reports of irregularities, the Prime Minister"s Office (PMO) has asked ministers to furnish evidences of their domestic trips to claim reimbursement of expenses.

In a letter dispatched by the PMO, the ministers have been informed that the finance section at the PMO will not reimburse expenses if they fail to show evidences containing information as to where, when and why they made such trips.

´We have received a letter from the PMO asking us to furnish report of visits made by ministers,´ said a knowledgeable source at the ministry of Land Reforms and Management.

The PMO has also warned the ministers that it won"t reimburse any expense if visits are found to have been made for personal or political objectives.

A source at the PMO said, ´We have clearly asked the ministers to furnish evidences of events they attended if they want their expenses to be reimbursed. Ministers are required to furnish program details before seeking reimbursement of their expenses,´ states the letter.

The PMO, however, has informed that it will reimburse expenses made by minister"s personal assistant and security officers even if ministers are found to have such visits for personal and political reasons. ´We did it only on humanitarian grounds,´ the PMO source added.

The source also added that the PMO issued new instructions as most of the bills submitted by ministers were not transparent and had been tampered with.

´It has also been disclosed that some ministers attending party activities have also been claiming reimbursement from the state coffers. Our objective is to stop reckless expenditure,´ the source added.

Incumbent cabinet ministers have spent Rs 20 million on domestic trips within 12 months starting July 2009, the source said. “This expenditure is four times the budget allocated for domestic trips of ministers,” the source said. “Thus a decision had to be taken to curb reckless expenditure.´

Earlier, the PMO had reduced the number of days for ministers" domestic trips to two days.

The PMO has already rejected the proposals submitted by 24 caretaker ministers seeking funds for domestic trips from the state coffers stating that the documents submitted by them were not transparent.

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