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Kathmandu Monday October 08, 2001 Ashwin 22, 2058.
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Misappropriating chattels
The Ministry of Education acquires materials
worth millions of rupees in kind every year. They range from personal computers, fax sets,
printers to trucks for dumping garbage and tractors for agricultural purposes. Obviously,
such materials are donated by foreign missions, international agencies and institutions to
this country. Such donated materials would have been undoubtedly very useful for
government offices, schools, district development committees and municipalities, had the
government realized the importance of their utilities. However, the government officials
carry portable ones to their home for personal use, while the non-portables remain unused
in the premises of the Ministry of Education since the day the Ministry collects them as
donations. What surprises many is that the government authority has maintained no official
record of these donated materials. How does the Ministry of Education distribute such
materials, and who are the government officials involved in corruption? These questions
are yet to be answered.
Seven years ago, the Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the World Bank (WB) donated education materials for primary
schools. This donation of educational materials came as part of the primary and basic
education project into this country. Unfortunately, such materials worth over ten millions
rupees, have still been lying unused at the Ministry of Education. The Ministry has
neither distributed them yet to any school, nor has it identified the primary schools
which badly need such education materials. However, hundreds of primary schools in remote
areas run their classes without teaching equipment, leave aside trained teachers and such
education materials as the JICA donated trucks, tractors, iron rods and furniture worth
millions of rupees. And these materials have been misused since 1993, the year the
government acquired them from the WB and JICA. The twenty three motor cycles donated by
JICA went missing from the premises just a few days after the Ministry collected them.
The Ministry of Education, after it had
realized the widespread misuse of donated materials, set up a committee to probe the
misappropriation of such materials. The committee even submitted its report to the
Ministry, explaining anomalies on how the government failed to utilise such materials
properly and, how the government officials misused them. The government received such
materials in the form of donations, but it did not keep any account. Neither has the
Ministry inspected the use of donated materials regularly, nor has it provided such
materials to any school for the last two years. Rather, the officials have misappropriated
them for their personal use. The government must not continue to take this lightly. The
misuse of such materials has cost the country’s credibility more than we have
thought. The government should immediately take action against those who have misused
donated materials.
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