Rural municipality chairperson and vice-chairperson in Lamjung tapped the money given by four hydropower projects for road upgradation into their personal accounts

Aas Gurung: Centre for Investigative Journalism-Nepal

As the four hydropower projects on Dordi corridor in Lamjung build access roads, the Rs 10 million allocated to Dordi Rural Municipality is being spent haphazardly. Neither the village assembly knows it, nor have the elected officials been informed about it.

Four under-construction hydropower projects on the Dordi corridor have provisioned Rs 2.5 million per project in the current fiscal year for Dordi Rural Municipality for the Nauthar Sera Chhote Khola Tanje road. While Rs 3.5 million has been disbursed, they have yet to release Rs 6.5 million.

The under-construction Dordi-1 (12.5 megawatt), Dordi Khola (27 MW), Upper Dordi A (25 MW) and Super Dordi (54 MW) were pressured into giving the money to the local government.

Use of raw power

Around 80 youths led by Shambhu Narayan Shrestha, chairman of the Nauthar Sera Shanti Milan Youth Club of Dordi Rural Municipality, protested two and a half years ago against the hydropower projects being developed. They demonstrated thrice demanding road upgradation, compensation for the land affected by transmission lines and aid to the health post.

Dordi RM Vice-chairman Dil Bahadur Ghale mediated the dispute between the hydropower projects and the protesting groups. He played a leading role in halting the protest and negotiating with project officials. Club Chairman Shrestha says, “Our demands were never addressed despite repeated protests. These hydropower schemes have become the begging bowl for the people’s representatives now.”

The protest fizzled out. But on January 19, 2019, local residents were brought to the streets under the command of Bakhan Singh Gurung against the power projects. In the midst of the agitation, village Vice-chairman Ghale took on the role of a mediator. Ghale had then said: “Since the power projects being developed on the Dordi corridor did not aid local development in any way, the locals were compelled to demonstrate. The schemes need to take note of this.”

As a result of the protest, a road upgradation monitoring and evaluation committee involving local unit Chairman Om Bahadur Gurung, Vice-chairman Dil Bahadur Ghale and Chola Kanta Gyawali was announced. Eventually, the protests led by Ghale and Gurung compelled the four Dordi hydropower schemes to donate Rs 10 million in total to the rural municipality for road construction.

An announcement has been made to improve a 5 kilometre way with Rs 5 million chipped in by the local government and the amount donated by the power developers. The statutory mechanism of the rural municipality, however, is ignorant about it.

The Rs 10 million pledged as a result of the protest has been provisioned for the rural municipality. But the amount has been deposited to the private account opened at the Dordi branch of Janata Bank in the name of Chairman Gurung, his deputy Ghale and Dordi Hydropower Project Engineer Chola Kanta Gyawali. Gurung says, “The amount has been deposited to the account opened after formation of a committee as agreed between the hydropower scheme operation committee and the village council chairman and vice-chairperson four months ago.”

The local residents are also clueless about the funds contributed by the hydropower schemes for construction of the village road. Meghrashi Gurung of Dordi-6, Ghalegaun says: “We protested after the village chairman started work even without forming the consumer committee. But nothing came out of it.”

Nisha Lama of Dordi-6, Chhumswara also said that some individuals had misused the grant from the hydropower projects. “Some people’s representatives have hoodwinked the local residents,” she remarked. Village Vice-chairman Ghale claims that there is no need for the consumer committee to spend the rural municipality’s budget. Spending had started without forming the panel. Dordi-6 Ward Chairman Nanda Raj Ghale says, “The village vice-chairman rented the bulldozer of his cousin at the rate of Rs 5,000 per hour. But I have no idea where the grant from the hydropower projects was deposited and how payments made.”

The Local Government Operation Act-2017 gives the people’s representatives no role in managing the accounts of the local level. Only the local level staff operate the accounts as per the provision of the law aimed at maintaining fiscal discipline. In Dordi, however, Chairman Gurung and deputy chair Ghale spend the budget from their own account.

095003063744201 is the account operated at the Janata Bank jointly by the three office bearers. The four power developers have deposited in it Rs 3.5 million as the first tranche received as of May 2. Guru Prasad Dhakal, chairman of the 27 megawatt Dordi Khola hydel project, says: “We got a letter on the rural municipality’s letter pad for depositing the money in the name of the monitoring and evaluation committee. We released the budget on that basis.”

According to the information received from the Janata Bank source, the first deposit to the joint account was of Rs 1 million on February 19, 2019 from the 12MW Dordi-1 power project through AC cheque. The same day, the 27MW Dordi Khola scheme developed by the Himalayan Power Partner deposited Rs 500,000.

The Prabhu Bank AC cheque for Rs 1 million written by the 25MW Upper Dordi A hydropower scheme in the name of Vice-chairman Ghale was deposited to the account on April 7, 2019. The 54MW Super Dordi (B) hydropower project deposited Rs 1 million to the account on April 26. The four schemes had agreed to deposit 40 per cent of their pledged amount in the committee’s account as the road works began. The remaining Rs 6.5 million is also due to be deposited in the account.

Of the Rs 3.5 million deposited to the Janata Bank account as of May 2, Rs 1 million was withdrawn on February 25. The same day Rs 500,000 was withdrawn in the name of Janga Bahadur Ghale, the vice-chairman’s cousin. On April 9, Rs 1 million was withdrawn twice in the name of Bakhan Singh Gurung.

How was the money thus withdrawn in the name of individuals several times over spent? The rural municipality has no clue. Dordi RM executive chief Bijayraj Poudel expressed ignorance about the money granted for road construction. Poudel believes that it is illegal to disburse the money by forming a committee involving some people’s representatives. “It’s illegal to solicit money in private account by using the local government’s letter pad and seal and to spend it arbitrarily,” he said.

According to the Local Government Operation Act-2017, the proposal for a development scheme and the income and expenditure has to be presented to the village assembly at the start of the fiscal year. The way for implementation of a plan is cleared only after endorsement of the proposal by the assembly. As per the spending plan, a consumer committee is formed from an all-party meeting and the local federal unit releases the budget to the committee’s bank account. The Dordi rural municipality has flouted this legal provision. Chief Administrative Officer Poudel says: “The grant money is being spent by shutting eyes to the law. The village assembly has endorsed none of this.”

While the money extracted illegally from the hydropower schemes has been spent haphazardly, there have not been notable improvements in the Dordi road. Not even 10 per cent work is over. Even as Vice-chairman Dil Bahadur Ghale has taken the responsibility for a part of the road construction, work has stalled on that stretch too. The locals are against Ghale undertaking works without forming the consumer committee.

Om Bahadur Gurung, Dil Bahadur Ghale and Chola Kanta Gyawali

RM Chairman Gurung argues that the money from power projects was deposited in the joint account of three individuals as there would be hassles in putting it into the local government’s account. Since dividing the grant equally among all the wards would be unproductive, Gurung argues, the amount was deposited to the account of the Monitoring and Evaluation Committee. “The money was spent on the basis of joint evaluation by opening a joint account of the hydropower and the rural municipality,” Gurung said.

The local governments had been taking undue advantage from the under-construction hydropower projects being developed in their territory. Claiming that the Hume pipe structure built to facilitate vehicular movement across the Dordi Khola had cost Rs 800,000, Chairman Gurung had collected Rs 200,000 from each of the four power projects. He had pursued the grant by writing a letter on April 18 on the local authority’s letter pad. The letter bearing dispatch number 616 asks for the grant to be deposited to the Janata Bank Dordi account number 095104051411701 jointly owned by Chairman Om Bahadur Gurung and Dil Bahadur Ghale. This was despite Gurung and Ghale taking Rs 100,000 advance from the rural municipality for the purpose.

The advance payment to Dordi Ward 4 Chairman Shuk Bahadur Gurung in the fiscal year 2018-19 has yet to be cleared. The four hydropower projects have been the sources for some elected officials in Dordi to extract cash.

The 27MW Dordikhola project being promoted by IME Group, Non-resident Nepali Association and Himalayan Power Partner has a total investment of Rs 4.23 billion. Around 85 per cent of the project work has been over. The 25MW Upper Dordi A project promoted by Liberty Private Limited with the total completion cost of Rs 3.96 billion has been completed more than 85 per cent. The 54MW Super Dordi B Hydropower Project being developed by People’s Hydropower Company, with a total cost of Rs 8.8 billion has seen over 40 per cent progress. The Rs 2.5 billion Dordi Khola-1 (12.5MW) scheme being promoted by the Lamjung Electricity Development Company Limited has progressed 42 per cent towards completion.