 |
|
| Kathmandu, Tuesday April 30, 2002 Baishakh 17, 2059. |
|
Home Ministry’s green
signal to buy helicopters irks MoF
By Prem Khanal
KATHMANDU, April 29:The Ministry of Finance
(MoF) faces extreme resource constraint as the Home Ministry (MoHA) makes determined move
to buy three helicopters. Nepal Police has already called for tenders for purchase of
helicopters after the MoHA’s clearance but the MoF, which is to allocate the amount
for the purpose, is in dark about meeting the cost.
Cost of the helicopters is estimated to be four
times more that the budget earmarked for the police for the current fiscal year.
Despite a clear provision in the financial
regulation that all the government bodies should take prior permission from MoF before
taking any decision that puts financial burden on the government, the Home Ministry issued
the tender call without prior notice to MoF, violating the financial regulation, high
level officials at the MoF say.
In the current budget, MoF has allocated funds
of Rs 220 million only to purchase only one helicopter for the Police. However, the Home
Ministry recently called a tender to supply two 9-seater combat helicopters with night
vision devices and another 18-seater helicopter.
The Cabinet meeting, held a month ago had agreed
in principle to purchase three helicopters but the decision was salient on the amount and
specifications of the helicopters. During the meeting, Finance Minister Dr Ram Sharan
Mahat had disagreed with the proposal, but the proposal was approved with the support of
majority of the Cabinet members, sources say.
Senior MoF officials express surprise over the
tender notice of the police headquarters. "The Cabinet permission, in principle, is
only the green signal for a feasibility study to purchase the helicopters," says a
senior official requesting anonymity. "But it is astonishing to see the tender call
based only on the Cabinet permission." He also said that the MoF has not been
officially informed about the tender call.
The official also expressed deep concern over
the growing violation of the existing financial regulation, which has greatly eroded
financial discipline jeopardising the entire economic stability of the country.
"There is growing tendency that required
budgets are directly taken into the Cabinet meeting and approved without prior notice to
MoF, which makes the MoF extremely difficult to arrange such non-budgetary amount,"
said the official. The MoF has tried to address this issue by sending circulars recently
to all government bodies to strictly follow the financial regulation.
Devendra Raj Kandel, Minister of State for Home
Affairs, however, argues that helicopters have become essential for the police force to
speed up its anti-Maoist campaign. "Since security is the topmost priority of the
government at the moment, we do hope that the concerned authority will arrange the
necessary budget," Kandel told The Kathmandu Post.
Justifying the need of two night vision-equipped
combat helicopters, he said the police force needs such helicopters to foil Maoist attacks
at night time. "Since most of the bloodiest attacks have been carried out during the
night, the police force direly needs such choppers," he added.
Meanwhile, the newly instituted Armed Police
Force (APF) has also requested the MoF to arrange funds for two helicopters. In addition,
the source of the MoF also informed that neither Nepal Police nor the APF have requested
the MoF to arrange the budget in the upcoming budget estimate to purchase two combat
helicopters.
The skyrocketing regular expenditure due to the
increased security expenditure and the dwindling government revenue have put the
government in a challenging situation. The Royal Nepal Army (RNA) has also recently
presented a three-year package plan pleading the government to arrange extra Rs 16 billion
over the period. Aside from the plan, the overall security expense for the coming fiscal
year is expected to touch Rs 19 billion. This includes, over Rs 13 billion, including the
package programme budget for the RNA and rest about Rs 6 billion for Nepal Police and the
APF.
Other Stories
|
