The District Project Implementation Unit of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has been apportioning budget to construct school buildings on the basis of faux recommendations of the local levels.
Aas Gurung: | CIJ, Nepal
Sapta Kanya Primary School of Rainas Municipality Ward No. 2, Lamjung has barely nine students from grade one to four. Interestingly, class five does not have a single student. However, the municipality has written a recommendation letter to the concerned authorities seeking a budget to construct the school building by citing an exaggerated number of students. In an act of deceit, the municipality has said the school has 21 students, which is more than double the actual number. In fact, the school has only nine students.
Siddhi Sadan Basic School’s building.
The District Project Implementation Unit (Education) of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) apportioned Rs. 23.98 million for the construction of a two-room building in the fiscal year 2019/20 on the basis of the municipality’s recommendation.
Laxmi Prasad Gurung, Chairperson of the School Management Committee, has been entrusted to sign the contract and to bring the budget to construct the school building. Chairman Gurung’s eldest son Subhachan Gurung was the sub-engineer of the Unit during the time of budget allocation for the purpose. However, Subhachan has been transferred to Tanahun now.
While in Lamjung, Subhachan’s role was crucial in allocating the budget for the school building. A committee headed by Subhachan had recommended the name of Sapta Kanya Primary School to reconstruct the school building after the devastating earthquake of 2015. “The schools have been selected on the basis of the recommendations made by the municipality, not on the basis of nepotism,” argues Subhachan.
Enigmatically, the Sapta Kanya Primary School Management Committee awarded the contract to construct the school building to Prem Chand Gurung — Chairman Gurung’s youngest son — without any call for competition or bidding process. Refuting allegations of nepotism, Chairman Gurung said, “In fact, we intend to give priority to the locals to construct the school building.”
The budget has been allocated to Sapta Kanya Primary School in the name of construction of school building every year notwithstanding the number of students. The District Project Implementation Unit had provided Rs. 1.8 million to construct a two-room building for the school in the fiscal year 2018/19.
Harka Bahadur Gurung, a founding member of the School Management Committee, said that a new school building was constructed by demolishing the existing one with the budget allocated last year. Sensing misappropriation in the allocated budget, he says, “The building has been constructed just to fulfill the vested interest of some individuals rather than executing the plan. This is a glaring example of abuse of state fund.”
Despite the disbursement of the fund allocated in the previous year, the building is sans doors and windows because of which classes are not run.
The anomalies do not end here. Several other schools in Lamjung with very few students, too, are accustomed to bringing in a huge amount of budget in the name of construction of schools. The Kalika Basic School in Ward No. 2 of Rainas Municipality in the district has a total of 39 students from classes 1 to 8. However, in what can be termed as a justification for the need to construct the building, the ward office, too, has recommended an exaggerated figure of 80 students to get the budget.
The then Education Office, Lamjung had allocated Rs. 500 thousand to the school for maintenance of the two-room building in the fiscal year 2017. The amount has already been disbursed. According to Top Bahadur Amagai, Headmaster of the school, a building has been constructed in the same place by demolishing the existing structure.
Likewise, a total of Rs. 7.1 million has been apportioned to construct a four-room building in Kalika Basic School in the fiscal year 2019/20. Dal Bahadur Gurung, Chairperson of the School Management Committee, says that they have entrusted the responsibility of the construction to Nawaraj Gurung of ward number 2.
105 students versus 17 teachers
The Siddhi Sadan Basic School of Lamjung’s Sundar Bazar Municipality Ward No. 10, too, is no exception. A total of Rs. 2.4 million has been allocated to construct an additional two-room building in the Fiscal Year 2020/21 for the school which had already constructed a two-room building by spending Rs. 16 lakhs in the Fiscal Year 2018/19.
Siddhi Sadan Basic School’s toilet collapses without even being used.
Jaya Bahadur Adhikari, the Chairman of Siddhi Sadan Basic School Management Committee, and also the chairman of Ward No. 10, recommended a budget for his school. “In fact, the fluctuation in the number of students in a government school should not be taken otherwise,” says Adhikari. The number of students in the school, which had received a budget from the District Project Implementation Unit of the NRA for the building last year, has shrunk to 45. The school which runs up to grade 8 does not have a single student in two classes. However, Adhikari’s recommendation mentions that the school has a total of 68 students.
“Such a tendency has been prevalent in community schools to get facilities and budget,” claims Ram Bahadur Pandey, Principal of Siddhi Sadan Basic School, claiming that running a school would sometimes become a Herculean task if they do not exaggerate the number of students.
A toilet constructed at Rs 2 hundred thousand in the FY 2010/11 with the investment of the then District Education Office, Lamjung is in shambles without even being used. Neither the School Management Committee nor the school administration paid attention to the maintenance.
Likewise, the District Education Office provided Rs. 4 lakh to construct a toilet with two rooms in 2015. However, the concerned authorities did not bother to construct septic tanks even after allocating the budget in the last two fiscal years. The toilets have useless now. Headmaster Pandey reasons some “technical faults” while constructing the toilet.
The District Project Implementation Unit had allocated a total of Rs. 1.48 million to construct toilets in the school in the Fiscal Year 2019/20. Toilets are currently being constructed with the same budget. Ashok Parajuli, Chief of the Project Implementation Unit, Lamjung, claims that the budget was allocated to construct toilets on the basis of the school’s recommendation and the report given by the technicians.
That is not all. A three-room building was constructed at Prabhat Shanti Purna Secondary School in Marsyangdi Rural Municipality Ward No. 8 of Lamjung at the cost of Rs. 3.4 million in the fiscal year 2018/19. Similarly, a total of Rs. 7 million was allocated for the construction of a four-room building in the fiscal year 2019/20.
A building being constructed for Kalika Milan Secondary School. Photos: Aas Gurung
Interestingly, four out of 20 rooms in six buildings have become useless since the school has very few students. The local level, in its recommendation, has shown 116 students while seeking a budget to construct the school building. However, the school, which has 17 teachers, has only 105 students. The District Project Implementation Unit allocated Rs. 1.484 million for the construction of toilets apart from the school building.
Sewa Sadan Primary School of Besishahar Municipality Ward No. 4, established in 1952, has been operating as a proposed high school since 2008. A three-room building was constructed at a cost of Rs. 34.90 million in FY 2018/19. Similarly, a total of Rs. 7.2 million was allocated to construct an additional four-room building in FY 2019/20. The ward office of Besishahar Municipality Ward No. 4, meanwhile, has recommended to the higher authorities for the budget to construct a school building saying that the school has 116 students. However, the school has currently 75 students.
Chief of Besishahar Municipality, Guman Singh Aryal says that the school exaggerates the number of students to acquire the budget as it will not be allocated without the local level’s recommendation.
Some primary schools in Lamjung have only 9 to 15 students, and less than 80 students at the secondary level. The Ministry of Education has the policy to merge or integrate schools having fewer students with the government schools. This, however, has not been implemented. Instead, the budget has been allocated to schools having fewer students.
A four-room building was constructed at Lokraj Adarsh Secondary School in Besishahar Municipality Ward No. 11 in the fiscal year 2018/19 at a cost of Rs. 6.9 million. Likewise, a four-room building was constructed at a cost of Rs. 7 million in FY 2019/20. The ward office, meanwhile, has recommended that the school has 125 students. However, the record of last year’s final exams showed only 110 students in the school.
In fact, there has been a distortion while writing the recommendation by increasing the number of students at the Tamu Primary School of Kwalasonthar Rural Municipality Ward No. 1. The District Project Implementation Unit had allocated Rs. 24.61 million for the construction of a two-room building in the fiscal year 2019/20. However, even though the ward’s recommendation shows 27 students in the school, it has only 15 students.
Tamu Primary School signed an agreement with the District Project Implementation Unit (Education) Lamjung to construct a building on July 9, 2020. The agreement stipulates that the construction of the building will be completed by March 2021. However, the construction work started only in the first week of February 2021. The principal of the school Nanda Bahadur Gurung has a plain and straight answer: “Delay in the work because of road obstruction”.
The District Project Implementation Unit (Education) Lamjung invested Rs. 1.86 billion for the reconstruction of 127 government schools in the district from the fiscal year 2016/17 to 2020/21. Construction of 68 schools has been completed by January 2021.
In a bid to procure the budget from the District Project Implementation Unit, there is a criterion that the school building should be damaged by the earthquake, should have a sufficient number of students, and the school building constructed on its land. However, the District Project Implementation Unit of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has provided a budget to the schools on the recommendation of the local level even though the schools do not meet these criteria.
Ashok Parajuli, Chief of the Project Implementation Unit Lamjung, says that he does not have complete information as the school management committee has been given the responsibility of constructing the school building. He says, “After the completion of the construction, the final payment is made after our engineers inspect the building. In fact, we have no role beyond that.”
