Budget and resources have been misused to serve the interests of the relatives of people’s representatives in Chaukune Rural Municipality, Surkhet

Kalendra Sejuwal: Centre for Investigative Journalism-Nepal 

The first point of the fiscal estimates of the Chaukune Rural Municipality in Surkhet for the fiscal year 2018-19, unveiled on June 24, 2018, allocates Rs 4 million to the Chaukune Multi-purpose Cooperative Organisation.

However, there did not exist a cooperative by that name when the budget was allocated. The entity was registered in the rural municipality on February 13, 2019, eight months after the money was earmarked. The cooperative was chaired by Gorakh Bahadur Shahi, own brother of rural council chairman Dhir Bahadur Shahi. The secretary of the cooperative was Dalmani Dhamala, Gorakh Bahadur’s business partner in LG Construction. Padam Sharma, a local government employee, was chosen as a cooperative member.

The cooperative claimed the amount disbursed in its name before it was born at the end of the fiscal year. Chief Administrative Officer Hit Prasad Poudel took a firm stance against releasing such a large amount of money for the cooperative unsystematically. “I’ve been transferred here recently. I’m yet to learn everything here so how can I release the money?” Poudel said.

Poudel’s denial has stopped the Rs 4 million budget from being released so far. But the budget under other headings has been spent haphazardly in Chaukune as set up by the Shahi brothers. Another organization that got the local budget before its inception is the Betan Karnali Multipurpose Farmers’ Group. Rs 800,000 was allocated to the group in the current fiscal year for irrigation, drinking water, and water source management. The group was formed last year, four months after the budget was announced.

Lalmani, the business partner of Gorakh Bahadur, of Ward 7 became the chairman of the group formed at Shobhanchaur in Ward No 3. “We the people’s representatives had demanded that a local resident should chair the committee given the local budget but our voice was not heard,” says Ward 3 Chairman Ganesh Rana.

Dhir Bahadur Shahi and Gorakh Bahadur Shahi

Having obtained the recommendation for agreement from the ward office on October 13, the group is now building structures. The rural municipality has released an advance of Rs 240,000. Lalmani and Gorakh Bahadur have plans to involve some locals in poultry and turkey farming in the name of the group.

The Motive Consultancy Private Limited has also been registered in the name of Gorakh Bahadur. The rural municipality awarded the company with two bridge survey design contracts worth Rs 483,000 last fiscal year, going against the Public Procurement Act. On this, the Auditor General’s Report states: “Since the rural municipality is seen to have released the payment in violation of its rules, it is deemed essential to regulate the expenses by providing the evidence mentioned as remarks.”

According to the report, the rural municipality had entrusted 10 companies including Motive with the survey, formulation of the master plan, working procedure, and environmental impact assessment report, documentary making, and detailed project report preparation. In this task, the irregularities are said to be worth Rs 4.763 million. According to a municipal worker, the local council chairman had pressured for assigning the task to Motive Consultancy without following the due procedure. When other companies also benefitted from the process, the accepted payment procedure was flouted.

LG Construction, owned by Gorakh Bahadur, has got a contract worth over Rs 4 million to build an assembly hall in Chaukune in the current fiscal year. The winning bid, 34 per cent cheaper than the competing bids, is said to have come in collusion between the competitors. “The bidder does not stand to profit much from the low bid though,” said Khemraj Sharma, the accountant at the municipal office. “But collusion was rumoured among the construction firms to have happened in the process.”

Gorakh Bahadur’s influence does not end here. Targeting its 10 wards, the rural municipality has put forth the concept of Chaukune Broad Drinking Water Consumers’ Organisation this fiscal year. Gorakh Bahadur chairs the committee. The organisation has not made much headway since it was criticised as aiming to bring all the water consumer committees under it in the name of “broad”. Village Vice-chairperson Nirmala Magar says: “I don’t know anything about the committee’s significance. We need to ask the chairman what he formed it for.”

Even though his idea of the umbrella consumer committee did not materialize, Gorakh Bahadur is the chairman of the Ghatgaun Lift Drinking Water Consumer Committee. The project is currently building a tank worth Rs 4.4 million and a sumpwell worth Rs 2.9 million. The Pandav Construction is building the tank at a price 33 per cent lower than the estimated amount. The sump well contract has been awarded to the Tapta Construction Services at the estimated cost. The source claims that Gorakh Bahadur himself undertakes the construction even as the Pandav won the bid. Hari Prasad Adhikari, a local working in the field of good governance, says: “Tapta is nominal now. The works are done by the chairman himself.”

Tapta proprietor Dipu Sarki, however, said he had been doing the works as per the contract.

Since Dhir Bahadur Shahi became the rural municipality chairman, not only Gorakh Bahadur but other members of the family have benefited too. Last fiscal year, the local council set aside Rs 300,000 for the Amalatakura embankment in Ward No 10. While the consumer committee was formed, local residents had demanded one of them as its leader. Initially, ward Chairman Shankar Kami was also in favour of a local member. However, everyone was quiet when Chairman Shahi demanded recommendation in the name of his sister Raju Shahi, a resident of Barainche in Panchapur Municipality-4.

“How could we refuse to recommend the chairman’s sister?” Kami said. “No one protested her recommendation. Then I sent her nomination as consumer committee chairperson.”

Road construction is now going on in the rural municipality even as there is no participation of the beneficiaries. While the local council has its own two tippers, and two excavators, two tippers, one JCB and a roller have been rented. Gorakh Bahadur has control even over the machinery.

The earthmovers owned, and procured, by the local council are being used haphazardly with their fuel paid for by the rural municipality, said Adhikari. “We took an interest to begin with. But since there would be no action and we would be threatened, we paid no heed to it.”

The misuse of fuel and the funds is seen in the money spent by the local government. In the current fiscal year, the rural municipality has allocated Rs 14 million for fuel and road construction. With the budget, the local council has rented a JCB for Rs 300,000 per month, a roller for Rs 350,000 per month and two tippers for Rs 190,000 a month. The rental period is five months until the end of the fiscal year in mid-July. The equipment consume fuel totaling 500 litres a day.

Local government chief Shahi says those who envy his activities were protesting his work. He claims that his brother Gorakh Bahadur had been assisting him without any fee. “There is no problem in our work. We are working legally based on the set working procedure. The law does not bar my brother from working, does it?” Shahi asked.

Chairman Shahi said there was no separate budget for road and that the rural municipality had been cutting tracks using its own equipment and others on rent. According to him, heavy equipment worth Rs 24 million had been purchased in the current fiscal year while Rs 12 million had been spent on fuel and renting other equipment as of the second week of May. The total road construction so far was worth Rs 450,000.