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Kathmandu Thursday March 22, 2001 Chaitra 09, 2057.
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Punish
the guilty
The fresh investigation into the shady timber
deal, which clearly revealed a nexus between and among the traders, government officials
and politicians, is nothing new although it is considered a "praetorian
practice". It is rare that the government takes any action against businessmen or
government officials involved in such shady deals. It is even rarer if the alleged ones
are from the ruling party. This is not the first case of such an unscrupulous deal under
investigation. Nor is it a minor one, no matter how many shared the hefty commissions in
innumerable timber deals. But sadly, businessmen, bureaucrats and politicians, especially
from the ruling party, have ridiculed the present system at a cost to moral practices and
laws that prevent any underhand deals.
The hurricane of last April had uprooted sal
trees in the Morang forest and, early this year, the former State Minister for Forest and
Soil Conservation Mohammad Aftab Alam issued a "high order" to sell these sal
logs by abusing his authority. The general manager of Nepal Timber Corporation (NTC) sold
200,000 cubic feet of timber, thereby making hefty commissions. However, the genuine firms
paying taxes to the tax office were denied the right to sell. The deal was struck by the
local unscrupulous wood traders with the NTC officials at 540 rupees per cubic feet that
included 121 rupees per cubic feet as commission. In addition, the money indirectly
charged as surcharge was distributed among the NTC employees. Two-thirds of the total
commission went to high
level officials, while the rest was given to the employees at branch offices who had
assisted these traders in selecting the best timber from three forest areas and 15 range
posts.
The regulation clearly underlines that the
NTC officials had no authority to sell select logs to a handful of persons based on the
forged order forms, nor did the wood traders have a right to select sal logs from various
timber stations. The investigation into this timber scam revealed the other day that the
NTC management committee had sold the timber by making a commission of 24.2 million
rupees. This is something that certainly shows how deep-rooted the nexus among traders,
bureaucrats and politicians is. Otherwise, the government would have already taken action
against those involved in the under-the-counter deal. The government must recognize that
it has bred more corrupt leaders and bureaucrats instead of preventing such massive
irregularities. It is also true that the government, many a time, has turned a blind eye
to such malpractices, which have not only been very costly to the country, but have also
polluted the political environment.
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