Contrary to the constitutional mandate and the order of the Supreme Court, all seven provinces have facilitated the distribution of Rs8 billion to elected representatives from the state coffers.

Ramji Dahal: Centre for Investigative Journalism-Nepal

After the Supreme Court prohibited distributing salaries citing the lack of such a provision in the constitution, the local levels have passed a law that allows them to distribute amenities of seven to 14 kinds to the representatives. The expenses under the laws passed by the provinces add an annual burden of Rs8 billion. Experts say this risks making door-to-door democracy expensive and defame the federal system.

Provincial laws defy Supreme Court order

A writ petition had been filed at the Supreme Court, claiming that the Local Level Officials and Members Allowances Act 2075 prepared by all provinces except Province One had defied the Constitution and depleted the state coffers significantly. The apex court on Kartik 1, 2076 invalidated the Acts, claiming that there was no constitutional provision for local level office bearers and members to receive a salary.

The SC order reads: “There is no constitutional provision of local level officials and members receiving a salary. So what cannot be taken directly should not be taken indirectly or by misinterpreting what is written.”

After the Supreme Court put a ban on taking salaries, provincial governments started making laws by using different titles and without mentioning the word ‘salary’. These laws have nullified the constitutional provision and Supreme Court order.

“The constitution can’t be betrayed through a roundabout way,” said Bhimarjun Acharya, a constitutional expert. “Moreover it is unethical of the representatives to take several kinds of allowances when they keep saying politics is service. If they can’t do without money, then they should change the constitution and take a monthly salary. The representatives of the local bodies can’t take any kind of payment without changing the constitution.”

The Acts of all the provinces have opened the way for providing allowances to representatives under various headings including guest welcome, residency, snacks, public relations, monitoring, newspapers, telephone and communications, and coordination.

The representatives of seven provinces take home a total of Rs63.77 crore per month, which comes to Rs7 billion and 63.24 crore per year. Except for Province One and Bagmati Province, other provinces spend Rs29.26 crore on festival allowances. If we add the festival allowances on other allowances, the total spending comes to Rs7 billion and94.50 crore per year.

In addition, local representatives receive a daily travel allowance, foreign travel allowance, and travel insurance fees as per the provincial law. They receive allowances ranging from $125 to $175 per day.

Former chief secretary Leela Mani Poudel said, “The way the provinces are providing so many allowances to the local representatives ends up in people feeling disenchanted with federalism itself.”

Province Two tops all other provinces in terms of providing allowances to local representatives with total spending of Rs16.35 lakh; Province One, 10.22 crore; Province Five, Rs9.1 crore; Bagmati Province, Rs9.21 crore; Gandaki Province, Rs7.47 crore; Sudur Paschim Province, Rs6.47 crore; and Karnali Province, Rs5.2 crore.

The largest share of expenditure as per the provincial Acts is made by municipalities. The 276 municipalities together spend Rs33.11 lakh per month; the 460 rural municipalities spend Rs24.6 crore; the 11 sub-metropolitan cities spend Rs2.42 crore; the six metropolitan cities spend Rs1.73 crore; and the 77 district coordination committees spend Rs2.22 crore monthly.

Lokendra Oli, an advocate who filed a petition at the Supreme Court against the illegal distribution of allowances to the representatives, said, “This is an extravagance. The provincial governments have disrespected the Supreme Court by neglecting its order barring the distribution of allowances as per the wish of the provinces.”

Gandaki spends Rs3 crore on transport

The Gandaki Pradesh on 26 Asar 2077 passed the Act for Rural Assembly, City Assembly and District Coordination Members, 2076. The Act, which has been published in the provincial gazette, provides allowances to all officials and members of the Gandaki Province’s local levels under 13 headings.

Of the 13 allowances, the first is fuel; the second, engine oil; and the third, travel. The mayor, who gets 90 litre of petrol per month, also gets Rs12,000 as travel allowance.

The Act has a provision that even the deputy mayor and ward chairpersons get fuel allowances. It ensures travel allowances for all elected representatives. The local people’s representatives in Gandaki also receive ‘monitoring’ allowances even for doing their regular work. The province spends Rs18.93 crore annually as monitoring allowance.

Elected representatives expecting allowances even for doing their regular work is wrong, said Leela Mani Poudel, former chief secretary of the Nepal Government. “This has opened a way for exploitation of the state coffers.”

Gandaki Pradesh has one metropolitan city, 26 municipalities, 58 rural municipalities and 759 wards. The provincial law allows the distribution of Rs.89.67 crore to elected representatives under all headings.

As per this law, rural municipalities can now spend Rs3.62 crore, municipalities can spend Rs3.19 crore, and the metropolitan city can spend Rs2.98 million. The district coordination committees can spend Rs3.52 million. Elected representatives take home an additional Rs6.55 crore as festival allowances.

Article 11 of the Act has a provision that the chiefs of the metropolitan city, municipalities and rural municipalities can hire personal secretaries to be paid from internal revenue of their institutions. As per this provision, the 85 chiefs of local levels of the province now spend Rs 3 crore on personal secretaries.

Whereas, the 57th Report of the Auditor General has said that it is illegal for local representatives to provide salaries to their personal secretaries. The Auditor General’s Office in the last fiscal year concluded that 140 local levels across the country spent Rs 5.61 crore illegally on personal secretaries and advisers.

Man Kumari Gurung, a member of the provincial assembly, said her calls that the elected representatives should not be provided with travel allowances in addition to vehicles and fuel allowances has fallen on deaf ears. 

Karnali spends Rs6 crore per month

Karnali, which is lagging behind in terms of development, is also keen to provide allowances to the local people’s representatives. The law passed by Province on July 11, 2020 specifies 13 types of allowances for the elected representatives. Chief minister Mahendra Bahadur Shahi said, “People’s representatives cannot be told to do the work of the people by spending household money. The service law has been prepared to make it easier for them to work.” 

In Karnali, the chief, deputy chief and ward chairperson of the municipality together receive Rs1.5 crore per month under the heading of monitoring expenses. The Municipality chief can spend the least–Rs10,000 per month–and the District Coordination Committee the highest–Rs20,000 per month.   

The province spends a total of Rs5.2 crore on local people’s representatives. Apart from that, the annual expenditure on festival allowances is Rs4.65 crore. According to chief minister Shahi, all these expenses will have to be borne by the concerned local level. 

The municipalities of Karnali Province spend a total of Rs2.61 crore per month; rural municipalities, Rs2.19 crore; and District Coordination Committees, Rs2 million. There are 25 municipalities, 54 rural municipalities and 718 wards in the province. 

Province Two spends on 12 kinds of allowances

Province Two passed the law to provide allowances to local level officials and members on July 7, 2020. The allowances include fuel, engine oil, transport, newspapers, internet, telephone, mobile recharge, and hospitality. An additional 12 allowances are provided under headings of monitoring, festival, meeting, travel, foreign travel and travel insurance fee. 

The Province Two government has clearly said such a law had to be passed due to the decision of the Supreme Court. Chief minister Lal Babu Raut said, “As per the decision of the Supreme court, the province has passed a law to provide allowances to the local level people’s representatives differently as they are not allowed to receive their monthly salaries.” 

As per the Province Two law, a total of 6,618 local representatives from one metropolitan city, three sub-metropolitan cities, 73 municipalities, 59 rural municipalities and 1,271 wards receive allowances worth Rs1.63 crore per month. The highest expenditure of Rs10.31 crore is made by municipalities, Rs4.45 crore by rural municipalities, Rs8.3 crore by sub-metropolitan cities, Rs3.8 million by metropolitan cities, and Rs3.6 million by DCC. 

The provincial law also has a provision to provide Rs15,000 per month as housing allowance for the chief and deputy chief.  Chief minister Raut added, “The housing allowance has been provided to the people’s representatives who come from distant places as it is difficult for them to work at the district headquarters.” 

In Province Two, officials and representatives from executive committee members to the chief receive Rs2,000 to Rs20,000 per month as hospitality allowance, spending a total of Rs3.19 crore per month. The festival allowances, provided as lump sum of Rs15,000, cost Rs9.75 crore per year to the Province Two coffers. 

Chief minister Raut said, “We’ve not made this law under any pressure. The representatives who work for the people day and night should be provided allowances, shouldn’t they? We can’t expect them to steal other people’s money to meet their expenses.”

Far West Province spends on facilitation allowance

The Act on Allowances for Local People’s Representatives passed by the Far Western Provincial Assembly on June 25, 2020 has a provision of providing 13 types of allowances. As per the provincial law, the monthly expenditure of Rs1.62 crore is provided only to the people’s representatives of the province within the local level as ‘coordination and facilitation allowance’. Former chief secretary Poudel said, “The job of a people’s representative is to coordinate and facilitate. It is a shame that they are taking allowances for that job.” 

The law of the Far West Province has made provision to spend Rs79 lakh per month on hospitality. In addition, the province spends Rs6.47 crore per month on 13 types of allowances and Rs4.6 crore on festival allowances.

Of this amount, Rs3.42 crore is spent by municipalities, Rs2.62 crore by rural municipalities, Rs1.9 million by a sub-metropolitan city and Rs2.2 million by DCCs. There are 3,834 representatives in one sub-metropolitan city, 33 municipalities, 54 rural municipalities and 734 wards.

Province Five spends on ‘special work’ allowance

The law passed by Province Five on June 11, 2020 provides 14 types of allowances. The Province Five law has a unique feature: public relations special work allowance. As per this provision, rural municipality members receive Rs3,000 per month and the metropolitan city chief receives Rs15,000 per month. 

The province spends Rs9.01 crore per month–Rs1.81 billion per annum–on 14 types of allowances for people’s representatives. It also spends Rs15.18 crore per annum on telephone and mobile top-up for the representatives of the five states. The provincial law provides an additional Rs12,000 per month on transport allowances for the chief of the municipality who also receives vehicle and fuel allowances. 

The chief, deputy chief, ward chairperson, executive members and assembly members together spend Rs28.86 crore per annual on transport allowances. Krishna Prasad Sapkota, former president of the District Development Committee Federation, said, “If the representatives are taking transport allowances even when they receive vehicle and fuel allowances, then they are engaging in corruption.” 

There are 5,133 people’s representatives in four sub-metropolitan cities, 32 municipalities, 73 rural municipalities and 983 wards of Province Five. The province spends Rs4.23 crore per annum as festival and miscellaneous allowances for the representatives. Among the local governments, Rs4.39 crore is spent by rural municipalities, Rs3.37 crore by municipalities, Rs8.7 million by sub-metropolitan cities, and Rs3.6 million by DCCs. 

Province One spends on 11 types of allowance

The Allowances Act passed by Province One on May 27, 2018 has paved the way for providing 11 types of allowances to local people’s representatives. The one metropolitan city, two sub-metropolitan cities, 46 municipalities, 88 rural municipalities, 14 DCCs and 6,618 representatives from 1,157 wards spend together Rs10.22 crore per month. Of this, Rs6.41 crore is spent on the metropolitan city, Rs2.69 crore on rural municipalities, Rs5.2 million on the sub-metropolitan city, Rs2.4 million on the metropolitan city and Rs3.3 million on DCCs. Province One spends a total of Rs13.79 crore per annum on local people’s representatives. The province also spends Rs2.06 crore per month as a hospitality allowance, which makes it a total of Rs24.82 million per year.

Constitutional expert Bhimarjun Acharya said, “People’s representatives should feel uncomfortable while receiving monitoring allowances even within their jurisdiction.”

Bagmati Province spends Rs13 crore on snacks

The Act passed by the Bagmati Province on April 15, 2020 provides 13 types of allowances to local level people’s representatives. The province spends Rs12.91 crore per annum annually on food allowance, a unique facility that is not available in other provinces.  In the province, representatives receive Rs1,500 to Rs5,500 per month for food, and Rs500 to Rs3500 for electricity and drinking water. 

Chief minister Dormani Poudel said it was wrong to think that the people’s representatives of the center and the provinces need allowances but not the local people’s representatives. “In terms of the work they do, the allowances being provided to the local people’s representatives are quite low. In terms of position, the local people’s representatives are senior to a government kharidar or a junior official. But in terms of the allowances, they look like juniors to the kharidar.” 

Former chief secretary Poudel, on the other hand, said it was wrong to pay monthly salaries to the people’s representatives in the name of allowances. “It is wrong to ask for votes in the name of serving people and then asking for allowances after winning in the elections.” There are 5,792 people’s representatives in three metropolitan cities, one sub-metropolitan city, 41 municipalities, 74 rural municipalities and 1121 wards in Bagmati. The province spends Rs9.21 crore per month on their allowances. Of this, Rs4.19 crore is spent by the municipalities, Rs3.65 crore by the rural municipalities, Rs8 million by the metropolitan cities, Rs3.7 million by the DCCs and Rs1.8 million by the sub-metropolitan cities. 

Get the payment reimbursed: Auditor-general

The 57th Report of the Auditor-General has pointed out that the law made by the seven provinces to provide allowances to the local people’s representatives is against the order of the Supreme Court and is in conflict with the constitution and to collect the beneficiaries received against the law.  

According to the report, in the last fiscal year, 576 local levels have paid Rs4.29 crore to chief, deputy chief, ward chairperson, executive committee members and ward members of the local levels.  

If local governments are autonomous, then the center should not be interested in their expenditure, said Krishna Hachhetu, political scientist and expert on federalism. “But the provinces should not provide allowances to the local level people’s representatives against their capacity. The provinces should spend on the basis of their income. The people’s representatives must be accountable to the people. Otherwise, the people will hold them accountable in the next elections.” 

(Note: The number of elected officials and members at the local level is based on 7 wards in the rural municipality, 12 wards in the municipality, 23 wards in the sub-metropolitan city and 32 wards in the metropolitan city.)