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Kathmandu Tuesday November 20, 2001 Marga 05, 2058.
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Widespread
financial irregularities mar KMC
By Razen Manandhar
KATHMANDU, Nov 19 – The
Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) Office is marred with widespread financial
irregularities and the limited economic resources widely misused, according to a
self-assessment report prepared by KMC.
The in-house report that was
available to The Kathmandu Post today details misuse of KMC resources and how the funds
are being ransacked.
"Elected local representatives
of KMC appear to be more involved in fulfilling their own personal benefits than serving
the interest of the people, who elected them," says the report on misuse of economic
resources prepared by a Ward Chairman.
The report has disclosed that the
local representatives have taken out Rs 9,300,154 as advance but have failed to clear the
accounts by specifying where and when they have used the funds as required by the
financial regulations to clear up the annual auditing.
On top of that a total of Rs.
2,516,281 has been paid out to various members for medical treatment. However, there are
no provisions in the regulations that allow KMC representatives to be paid medical
allowances and the advance paid out should be cleared within 35 days from the day of
payment.
KMC Ward No 28 Chairman Subhan Kumar
Shrestha had handed over the report to the KMC Board Meeting before the Dashain festivals.
"But the mayor said he was taking responsibility on processing the report and would
follow up the report as all the members opted to remain silent," said Shrestha, whose
report remained a secret held back by Board members for a whole month during the festival.
Shrestha took the responsibility of
probing and preparing a report on misuse of economic resources on August 17. "I
submitted the report on October 19 but it is still collecting dust in the KMC
office," he said.
Among those who had received cash in
advance and failed to clear the dues are the mayor, deputy mayor, ward chairmen, ward
members as well as nominated ward members. Ramesh Dangol, the ward No. 2 chairman, tops
the list taking advances totalling Rs 1,715,500 just last year. Mayor Sthapit has Rs.
970,894 to his name while there are 66 more names in the list.
Altogether 41 KMC representatives
have received total of Rs. 2,516,281 as medical allowance though there are no legal
provisions that allow such facilities. Among them, Ward No. 14 Chairman Badri Bahadur
Thapa and former Ward No. 27 Chairman Dharma Ratna Tuladhar have received Rs 320,000 each.
And Ward No. 9 Member Shyam Krishna KC has received Rs 250,000. Similarly, Ward Chairmen
Ganesh Bahadur Khadgi, Bidhya Sunder Shakya, Hari Krishna Dangol and Narattam Baidhya and
Ward Member Bidhya Neupane also grabbed over a hundred thousand rupees.
Moreover, the mayor, deputy mayor
and chairmen of ward No 26 and 30 have been found using mobile phones on KMC expenses
which is against the Local Self-Governance Regulations and it has incurred Rs. 182,204 in
past 14 months.
The report also points out that
chairmen of ward No. 2, 5, 17, 18, 27 and 30, including a ward No. 7 member as well as the
deputy mayor still use KMC motorcycles, which is against the earlier decision that bar
such use.
"These activities are the
reason people are losing their trust on the local representatives," said Shrestha,
who prepared the report. "A radical change must be brought in the present process of
making the representatives follow economic discipline and make economic transactions more
transparent," he stressed.
Commenting on the present tendency
of the municipalities to abuse the Local Self-Governance Act, the under secretary of
Ministry of Local Development Achyut Kumar Koirala said that many of the municipalities
are interpreting the concept of self-dependency as autocracy.
"KMC has been charged by
Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) in many cases of irregularities.
The tendency of many municipalities have been seen misusing the authority than bringing
out creative plans and policies for local development," he said.
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