PAC on right track‚ wants cars back

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE
misuse of govt facilities

KATHMANDU: The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee today directed the Council of Ministers and Ministry of Home Affairs to reclaim government vehicles and personal security officers provided to ‘unauthorised persons’ within seven days, saying such practices were in violation of prevailing laws.

PAC also directed the government to work in tandem with the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority to initiate action against those defying its orders. It has asked the government to bring such ill practices — of employing low-ranked police personnel and others as ‘domestic help’ at their residences — to an end.

The PAC meeting, chaired by committee chairman Ram Krishna Yadav, directed MoHA to review the rules and norms within a week and replace them with ‘clear and transparent ones’. Officiating Home Secretary Jaya Mukunda Khanal was present at the meeting.

MoHA record, which was provided to PAC, has found that the government vehicles and PSOs were ‘provided to unauthorised persons’. The record shows as many as 1,355 government employees (belonging to the Armed Police Force, Nepal Police and government offices) have been drafted for working at the houses of incumbent prime minister, chief justice, speaker, deputy prime ministers, ministers, deputy speaker, former prime ministers, ministers, high-ranking government officials (police and civil servants) and even civilians. According to the record, former NC lawmaker Amresh Kumar Singh has been using a government vehicle (Ba 1 Jha 7648) and availing himself 120 litres of fuel from state coffers till date. Interestingly, Rubel Chaudhary, a Bangladeshi national and son-in-law of former deputy prime minister Sujata Koirala, has also been provided two PSOs ‘as per the directives from MoHA’. The record, however, does not justify why Chaudhary has been given the facility.

PAC has directed the government not to provide any vehicle facility to those who have already purchased vehicles under the ‘customs duty exemption policy’ introduced by the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government in 1996. Most of the lawmakers of then House of Representatives (the second one since 1990) had enjoyed this facility.

Existing practice has it that an informal body under a joint secretary’s leadership at MoHA provides such facilities to an ex-official after assessing potential security threats to the person in question. Khanal said the body ‘takes a decision based on the written request by the person concerned’. “It is unfortunate that the government employees, who are recruited for public services, are being used as domestic servants,” said PAC member Rabindra Adhikari.