Lawmakers of the Sudurpashchim Province are preparing to complete development work in June/July after their contracts were signed in May/June. They have signed several contracts worth over Rs 40 crore for this month-long development race.
Shiva Raj Bhatta: Centre for Investigative Journalism-Nepal
The Provincial Lawmakers’ Development Fund (Provincial Infrastructure Development Programme) has allocated Rs 1.4 million towards building truss for the Shiva Mandir Community Hall at Baskoti in Bardagoriya Rural Municipality-6, Kailali.
The queue outside the provincial Tourism Development Program Implementation Unit, Dhangadi. Photos: Shiva raj Bhatta
The budget was allocated out of the Rs 3 crore Provincial Lawmaker Development Fund of Nanda Bahadur Pun, a provincial lawmaker. The provincial Tourism Development Program Implementation Unit, Dhangadi signed a contract with Rabindra Chaudhary, chairperson of the consumers’ committee, on June 5, 2020, amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
This is an example of the budget being spent when the financial year is coming to an end. Even amid the coronavirus pandemic, the same old illness of trying to complete ‘development work’ in June/July is seeing a repeat. Purna Joshi, a Communist Party of Nepal lawmaker from Sudurpashchim Province, said, “We all know that we can’t complete development work during the lockdown. But it is exactly at this time that the budget has been released.
Joshi is also a member of the provincial assembly’s Economy, Development and Natural Resources Committee. According to her, the committee had called provincial ministers and asked them to stop the monsoon development work. But the instructions have not been followed.
After the contract was signed, Chaudhary, the chairperson of the Consumers’ Committee, is hurrying to get Rs 1.4 million worth of work completed through the Consumers’ Committee within 21 days. “Cement is available nowadays. So we’ll be able to finish the work in 21 days. There’s nothing to worry about,” Chaudhary said.
As such, provincial lawmaker Tara Lama has allocated Rs 1 million towards building Itaha Babe Temple at Kanchanpur in Jaljhadi Rural Municipality. The contract was signed with the Consumers’ Committee on June 8, amidst the lockdown.
Ram Pravesh Rana, secretary of the committee, said, “The contract is for completing the work by Asar 15. We hope to finish it by then.” Despite the contract being signed, the foundation had not been dug even until 10 June.
There are 32 direct election regions in Sudurpashchim Province. Each year, provincial lawmakers receive Rs 3 crore each–a total of Rs 96 crore for all–as part of the infrastructure development programme. Contracts worth Rs 40 crore have been signed within the one-month duration between mid-May to mid-June. Since the lawmakers pressured subject offices to sign a contract, the consumers’ committees are forced to finish the development work by mid-July.
Disregarding the law
The sub-section 6 of section 7 of the Province Infrastructure Development Program (Operation manual), prepared by the Sudurpashchim Province Ministry, says, “Provincial assembly members should choose projects by mid-December and finalise all contracts by mid-February.”
The Provincial Assembly of Sudurpashchim Pradesh.
But if there is a conflict in any project, there is a provision to finalise the contract by Falgun 15 after taking permission from the Office of the Chief Minister and the Council of Ministers. But no contract for a project under the fund can be signed after 15 Falgun (around February 27).
Contrary to the provision, the budget is being spent after contracts were signed in mid-June. So much so that the provincial lawmakers are getting contracts signed by pressurising subject-specific offices of the province.
The Tourism Development Program Implementation Unit itself has to implement 94 projects worth Rs 7 crore within a month. According to Kishor Aryal, chief of the unit, “We have been facing a lot of pressure from the lawmakers. It’s not possible to implement the contracts at the end of the fiscal year and amidst the coronavirus pandemic.”
Due to pressure from Provincial Assembly members, technicians have given cost analysis of projects in all nine districts of the province. All projects against the unit are related to constructing temples, fences for temples and gravelling roads.
A joint budget of Rs 1.3 million has been allocated for the Nirpal Temple, the Jarmana Manilek Temple, Dalit Masani Temple, and Bhumdeuli Temple, all of which are located in Dadeldhura’s Ganyadhura Rural Municipality-1. A contract has been signed with the consumers’ Committee in the last week of Jestha (second week of June).
That particular project is of Karna Bahadur Malla, Provincial Assembly member from Dadeldhura ‘kha’ electoral region. Of the total Rs 30 million he is entitled to spend under the Lawmakers’ Development Fund, he has allocated Rs 1.55 crore for building temples, fences for temples and chautari platforms.
Similarly, a joint budget of Rs 1 million has been allocated for a project including Nilpal, Saupal and Bhumiraj temples located in Dadeldhura. “This is nothing but a way of spending the budget on unproductive areas,” said Pramod Pathak, a member of the Civil Society, Dhangadhi. “They’ve allocated Rs 1 million for three temples and Rs 1.3 million for four. How will they complete seven temples within a month from mid-June to mid-July?” This project is also under Provincial Assembly member Malla’s fund.
New loopholes
The Provincial Economic Affairs and Planning Ministry created the Sudur Paschim Consumers Committee Formation, Mobilisation and Management Procedure, going against the manual prepared by the Provincial government. Section 7 of the procedure has a provision that the contracts for the work to be done through consumers’ committees before the end of Chaitra, and the contracts that haven’t been signed until the end of Chaitra, can be signed after taking permission from the higher level. It is these loopholes of the manual that the provincial lawmakers have been exploiting.
“The government’s manual was prepared by the Cabinet. The procedure is prepared by a ministry of the province. That is why, the implementation of plans of the provincial government, including the Lawmakers’ Development Fund, should be according to the manual of the provincial government,” said Nar Bahadur Chand, the chairperson of the Federation of Industries and Commerce, Baitadi. “But the manual of the provincial government has been discarded in favour of the procedure of the ministry., There are 12 months in a year, but the contract is signed only in May/June. Why? The answer is clear: for corruption’s sake.”
Since the manual of the provincial government and the procedure of the provincial Ministry of Finance conflict with each other, the ministry’s procedure gets cancelled automatically, say legal experts. Kulananda Upadhyay, the attorney general of the province, said, the ministry’s procedure becomes void in case of such a conflict. “Nobody seems to bother about it,” Upadhyay said.
The Office of the Chief Minister and the Council of Ministers is the agency that looks after the provincial infrastructure program. The office is mandated to check whether the contracts have been signed or not. But it has no idea what is going on.
Kishor Kumar Chaudhary, a legal secretary at the Office of the Chief Minister and the Council of Ministers, said, “I got to know only after you told me about it. I’ll take this matter up now.” He said that if the manual had been prepared for the Provincial Infrastructure Development Program, the program should run according to the manual.
Several other projects of the Lawmakers’ Development Fund in Sudurpashchim Province have also been signed amidst the lockdown in contravention of the manual. So much so that several projects under the Infrastructure Development Program have been transferred to the local levels and the contracts signed. The Ministry has a total of 1,100 projects to be completed within the ongoing fiscal year. Out of those, almost 300 are in the process of being completed before mid-July after the contracts were signed in May/June.
Eight projects worth Rs 10 million, of Dilliraj Pant, a provincial assembly member of Kailali Constituency-5 ‘Kha’, have been handed over to Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan City after contracts were signed. Out of which, Rs 1.5 million has been allocated for the construction of a wall on the roadside from Jhalari Nala to Nawadurga tole Dhangadhi Sub Metropolitan City-13.
Likewise, Rs 1 million has been allocated to gravel the road from Shiva KC’s house to Dabal Chaudhary’s house. Panta, the lawmaker, has allocated Rs 2.5 million for the road from Homa Dulal’s house to Ram Khatiwada’s house, and for the road east of Food Corporation in Mohanpur, in Ward-13. The budget allocated for road gravel can’t be spent in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. According to Dwijraj Bhatta, an engineer at the Dhangadhi Sub Metropolitan City, all of the eight projects of lawmaker Panta had been signed in May/June, and are expected to be completed between mid-June to mid-July.
Two projects of Sudurpashchim Province lawmaker Nepalu Chaudhary have also been included in Dumliya village of Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan City-17. Two million rupees have been allocated to gravel the road there, and another Rs 1 million to gravel the Ghagaltol road in Ward-14. The contract was also done in May/June. However, even the arbitrators have no idea how the project is going to be completed in just a month.
The provincial Water Resources and Irrigation Development Division Office, Kailali, under the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure Development has signed the contract for 11 projects worth Rs 1.5 crore. Those projects will have to be completed by mid-July.
How can projects worth Rs 5.5 lakh to 1.25 million be completed in a month as mentioned in the contract? Jayaraj Bhandari, an information officer at the Water Resources and Irrigation Development Division Office, said, “The contract could not be signed in time due to the coronavirus pandemic. If the upper body commands us to implement the project according to the contract, we have to do it anyhow.”
The country’s development system is afflicted by the disease of spending money on ‘paper development’ by just signing a contract at the end of the year. For instance, the Office of Water Resources and Irrigation Development Division is a body under the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure Development. On May 24, a contract was signed to embank the Mohana River in Sundarshakti Community Forest in Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan City-19. That project had been allocated a budget of Rs 2.1 million. It is claimed that 70 percent of the embankment work has been completed within two weeks of the contract. Jayaraj Bhandari, an information officer at the Water Resources and Irrigation Development Division office, claimed that 70 percent of the work was completed in 14 days until the 25th of Jestha. “The monitoring conducted by our technicians has shown the work progress to be 70 percent,” he said.
However, locals trash such claims. Dinesh Raj Bhandari, former president of the Kailali Chamber of Commerce and Industries, said, “If 70 percent of the project worth Rs 2.1 million–which means over Rs 1.5 million–has been completed in 14 days, the big development projects would have been completed in time. It is a great wonder that they are completing Rs 1 lakh worth of work each day amid the lockdown.”
Nepalu Chaudhary, the Kailali Constituency–5 ‘Kha’ lawmaker, had allocated a budget for the embankment of Mohana River. “The Locals are working hard to complete the work. Around 50-60 percent of the work must have been completed by now,” Chaudhary said.
The Water Resources and Irrigation Development Division Office, Kailali, of Sudurpashchim Province had signed a contract with the Consumers’ Committee on May 29 for the construction of the embankment of Kali Mandir River in Godavari Municipality-2. The office has shown that 20 percent of the work had been completed within six days of signing the contract. The budget of Lawmakers’ Development Fund for Krishna Raj Subedi, minister for social development, has been allocated for this project. Rana Bahadur Rawal, a leader of the main opposition Nepali Congress party in Sudurpashchim Province said, “Spending the budget of lakhs of rupees in just a week or two is a case of corruption. The provincial government must stop it.”
Hari Regmi, the chairperson of the Consumers’ Rights Protection Forum Kailali, said, “How can a large sum of money be spent between mid-June to mid-July when 50 percent of the development budget cannot be spent throughout the whole year?” After all, 40 percent of the budget had been frozen in the last fiscal year due to the inability of the provincial Ministry of Social Affairs to complete the work in time.
Crores spent on gravel
At the end of the fiscal year, Dilliraj Panta, a Provincial assembly lawmaker from Kailali constituency–5 ‘Kha’, has initiated a road gravel project worth Rs 7.5 million within Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan City itself. The contracts have already been signed for the projects.
A contract worth Rs 2.5 million was signed in the second week of June gravelling the road east of the Food Corporation in Dhangadhi’s Mohanpur. Dwij Raj Bhatta, the engineer at the Dhangadhi Sub Metropolitan City, said, “There are many projects to be completed with the use of gravel or rollers. There is no role of the local levels in these projects. The lawmakers choose them, and the Ministry of Finance only gives us the authority to implement it.”
Similarly, the Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan Municipality is set to implement provincial lawmaker Panta’s Rs 10 million budget by signing a contract. Likewise, the Ministry of Finance and Planning has written a letter to the Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan City, on June 4, asking it to implement eight projects worth Rs 1 crore from provincial lawmaker Panta’s Lawmakers’ Development Fund. These projects need to be completed by the end of July. Bhatta, the engineer at the Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan City, said, “Consumers’ committees have been formed in full swing. We’re working as per the contract.”
Apart from the Lawmakers’ Development Fund, the Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan City is also trying to move ahead with its projects by signing a contract at the end of the fiscal year. Amidst the lockdown, the sub-metropolitan city signed contracts for 13 projects worth Rs 1.5 crore on May 8.
A contract worth Rs 2 million has been signed for the construction of a drain from the house of Jay Narayan Chaudhary to the house of Sher Bahadur Bista in the sub-metropolitan city’s Ward-5, and another Rs 2 million for the construction of a community hall in Bhagwati Tole. Similarly, Rs 2 million has been allocated for the construction of drainage from Buddhiram Chaudhary’s house to Uttar Bhandari’s house in Ward-4. Likewise, the sub-metropolitan city had signed contracts for 13 projects worth Rs 1.44 crore, which include support of Rs 1 million towards the construction of a meeting hall for senior citizens in Shivapuri Dham in Ward-4.
