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Kathmandu Monday October 01, 2001 Ashwin 15, 2058.
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Foreign loans reach Rs 194.37 billion
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Sept 30 - The total foreign loans drawn by the
country has reached a whopping Rs. 194.37 billion and with no auditing of such amount
there are widespread misuse and irregularities of this money, the Auditor General said
Sunday.
"It is a serious matter that there are no records of how
much aid and loans are brought into the country. We have repeatedly demanded with the
government to come up with a mechanism to keep track of these amount to avoid
irregularities and misuse of funds but this has not happened," Auditor General Bishnu
Bahadur K.C. told The Kathmandu Post.
K.C. had presented the annual report of the Auditor
General’s Office on Friday at the House of Representatives that details the financial
activities of the government during the past fiscal year. The report had been delayed due
to the June 1 Royal Palace massacre.
"There is no integrated record of how much in grants the
country has received so far from various donor agencies and nations. These amounts and the
spendings are not within the budget so these amounts are not audited," said the
report adding that without a national strategy on foreign grants in place, there is a
situation of confusion.
The report also says that another reason for this state is
including the grant aid amount in the fiscal budget without the government reaching
agreements with the donors. Such amount if not received would later create shortage in the
budget.
There are many cases where the donors who have pledged for
these loans or aid have not been paid out and the money spent by the government and it has
not been recovered.The loan part has totalled Rs. 4.59 billion and the grant aid is Rs.
1.94 billion.
The trend of misusing foreign aid and loan is on the rise and
worse, there is no record of how the devaluation of the Nepalese rupees against the
dollars has added to the burden, said the report.
The report says that the devaluation of the currency has
increased loan burden by additional 10.44 percent just in the past one year.
A chunk of the money is being misused in extra expenditures
like unnecessary trip to foreign destinations for training and seminars. "The reason
and objectives of these trips are not stated thus misusing the resources for these
unnecessary events," the report states
The report also says that the failure to recover the
estimated revenue projected in the fiscal budget is a serious matter. This amount totalled
to Rs. 17.36 billion this year, which is 300 percent increase in the past four years.
"This is even more serious than the amounts like
unsettled amounts and advance amount that also runs into billions of rupees," K.C.
said.
The amount totalling the unrecovered revenue, unsettled
amounts, advances by the government offices, foreign grant and loan yet to be received and
taxes have totalled to Rs. 55.87 billion for the government and another Rs. 15.82 billion
for other government agencies totalling a whopping Rs. 71.7 billion, the report said.
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