Govt revising facilities for former bigwigs

REPUBLICA
KATHMANDU, April 7: The home ministry has started revising its guidelines for providing vehicles and personal security officers (PSOs) to former ministers and other high ranking government officials, to help check the drain on state coffers.

The move comes after the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) last week directed the ministry to immediately retrieve vehicles and PSOs being provided to former ministers and government officials after preparing ´transparent, coherent and economically viable´ guidelines on such facilities.


Talking to Republica, home ministry spokesperson Jaya Mukunda Khanal said they will start retrieving such vehicles and PSOs after finalizing the new guidelines. “We received the directives from the parliamentary committee on April 1. The home secretary has just arrived back home. It will take a little more time for us to start retrieving the vehicles and PSOs,” he said over the phone.

Amid reports that state facilities such as vehicles and PSOs were being grossly misused by former ministers and high ranking officials on the basis of their political clout, a PAC meeting held March 30 had directed the home ministry to retrieve within a week vehicles and PSOs that were being provided illegally.

Senior home ministry officials said they plan to curb the practice of providing vehicles and PSOs to one-time ministers or government officials on a life-long basis. “We are mulling vehicle facilities for persons entitle to honor from the state for a limited period of time,” he said, adding: “We will make arrangements for PSOs depending on the security threat one faces.”

Currently, the home ministry provides a former prime minister with two vehicles (one for security personnel), a driver, two personal security officers (PSO) from Nepal Police and 13 Armed Police Force (APF) personnel, as well as 200 liters of petrol a month. Likewise, former deputy prime ministers and home ministers are provided two PSOs from Nepal Police, seven APF personnel, one driver, two vehicles and 200 liters of petrol a month.

In addition, a large number of political leaders, businessmen and former bureaucrats, among others, have been receiving such facilities from the state largely on the basis of their political clout. The PAC meeting has directed the home ministry to ensure that all ministers return the vehicles in their use after they retire from their posts and also to refer the names of persons who have misused government facilities to the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).