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Kathmandu Monday August 28, 2000 Bhadra 12, 2057.
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Stop corruption
The other day, chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for
State Affairs made a telling statement regarding the manner in which the electoral process
has bred corruption. This, no doubt, is a matter of serious concern in the country. Had
the Girija Prasad Koirala led-government passed the three Bills related to corruption
during the 18th session of parliament, such a critical remark would not have come. The
government does deserve this criticism because it has not done anything about the cases of
corruption in high places despite its frequent pledges to fight corruption.
In the last parliamentary session, the ruling Nepali Congress
failed to enact the three registered bills - the bill to empower the Commission for
Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), the bill to establish a special court for
corruption cases and a bill on the police and revenue investigation department. Even
though the Prime Minister admitted that there are smugglers who have been elected to
parliament, he has neither introduced a law to reform the electoral process so as to curb
corruption nor has he empowered CIAA with sufficient powers enable it to fight corruption.
This apart, the government did not hold any detailed discussion before the three bills
were registered in parliament. If the Parliamentary Committee had been given enough time
to go through the bills in detail, the possibility for further amendment to these acts
would not have been raised by the committee chairman. Besides, the manner in which the
government has ignored opposition parties in matters related to possible changes in the
bills shows that it is not really bothered about controlling corruption which has been
eating at the roots of development and democracy itself.
Incidence of corruption, graft and misuse of state funds are
highest in public corporations.
As a result, many state run corporations are on the verge of
collapse. The government has taken no step to privatize them nor has it assessed the
annual loss in these organisations properly. On the contrary, the government has been
pumping out of state coffers billions of rupees every year just
to keep these loss making organisations operational. Worse
still, political leaders either divert development funds for personal benefit or misuse
their authority so that they can amass wealth from these state corporations.
The government must stop what is happening. If it does not do
so, and allows corruption to thrive further, then the country is certainly headed towards
a doomed future.
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