KMC official’s daily snacks, meeting allowances and transportation expenses is unusually high.
Bidhya Rai: Centre for Investigative Journalism-Nepal
Unconfirmed reports of unbridled recurrent expenditure in the pretext of allowances, snacks, and transportation costs by Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) officials enthused us to venture out and dig into the issue. Considering the right to information, we approached Basanta Acharya, Information Officer at the KMC seeking the financial expenditure details of fiscal year 2017/18 on the three aforementioned topics. Failing to acquire details within 15 days from him, we registered an application at the KMC exercising our rights to Article 3 of the Right to Information Act 2007. Two days later, a hesitant Acharya handed us an incomplete report. We re-approached him seeking for details, which he dithered to provide the details within 15 days.
A meeting of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City. Photo: Chandra Mani Bhattarai, KMC
Interestingly, Mayor Bidya Sundar Shakya’s secretariat did not provide us the details to us despite our request. Tired of dealing with the KMC, we registered another application at the National Information Commission on August 24, 2018. Finally, KMC provided us the details in the first week of November. The following report is a summary of the expenditure report.
Inexplicably unbridled expenditure
The documents, in fact, raised red flag disclosing a well-orchestrated exaggeration of expenditure on snacks, meeting allowances and transportation. The documents revealed a total of Rs. 30 million 82 lakhs being squandered on three topics in the fiscal year 2017/18 and that too during 284 working days as provided by Information Officer Basanta Acharya. If this document is to be believed, the daily expenditure on snacks, meeting allowance, and transportation at the KMC stood at Rs. 1 lakh 34 thousand 5 hundred.
Upon scrutinizing genuine and fake expenditure bills, an unusual misuse of funds in the aforementioned topics was noticed clearly. According to the record of meetings and the expenditure of the KMC Bidding Valuation Committee, the Committee held 139 meetings in 2017/18, and each member received an allowance of Rs. 1,307 per meeting. However, according to the KMC mandate, an official is entitled to Rs. 800 as meeting allowance.
Consider this: Had the allowance been distributed as per the KMC’s instruction, the five-member committee, including its Chairperson Bharat Aryal and other four members, would have received a total of Rs. 5 lakhs 56 thousand as an allowance for the 139 meetings held last year. Now, if we go by the documents, each member received more than Rs 3 lakh 52 thousand, which clearly proves that a member received more than Rs. 70 thousand surpluses than that of the allocated allowance. Ganesh Prasad Thapaliya, Administrative Director at KMC, says, “We don’t have an exact record of how many such committees have been formed in the fiscal year 2017/18.” This shows that there has been an unbridled expenditure at the KMC.
Rs. 56 thousand as daily allowance
Normally, the KMC convenes meeting during office hours. Despite the fact, the KMC lacks the record of the number of meetings in the fiscal year 2017/18, data shows it allocated Rs. one crore, 58 lakhs 60 thousand as meeting allowance in one year. If the number of office days is to be considered, this shows KMC spends Rs. 55 thousand 8 hundred on meeting allowance each day.
According to KMC record, a total of 156 representatives of 32 wards received Rs. 1,230 each as meeting allowance, which is much higher than the mentioned amount. Information Officer Acharya informed that the meeting allowances differ considering the post of the chairperson. While a ward representative will receive Rs. 2,500 in a meeting chaired by the Mayor, he/she will get Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 1,000 if the meeting is chaired by deputy mayor and ward chairperson, respectively. A representative can receive an allowance a maximum of three times in the meeting convened by the ward office. However, the KMC lacks a record of the number of meetings held so far.
Rs. 47 thousand spent daily on tea, snacks
This might sound weird but a total of Rs. 47 thousand 3 hundred is spent each day under the heading ‘tea and light snacks’ at the KMC. This shows that KMC officials spent Rs. 1 crore 34 lakhs 45 thousand in the last fiscal year. There has been no ceiling on the amount of money that a mayor or deputy mayor can spend on tea and snacks. Buddha Ratna Manandhar, Chief of the Finance Department at KMC has a plain answer to this: “The expenditure increases according to the number of meetings.”
Meanwhile, the record showed that Mayor Bidya Sundar Shakya spent Rs. 87 thousand in tea and snacks in a single month of Jestha 2075. Likewise, Deputy Mayor Hari Prabha Khadgi spent Rs. 1 lakh 32 thousand in two months (Jestha and Asar). A flabbergasted KMC staff said, “A lot of people, undoubtedly, come to meet the Mayor and Deputy Mayor. Despite this, the expenditure has crossed the limit.”
Rs. 89 lakhs on transportation
According to the documents, KMC officials spent Rs. 88 lakhs 97 thousand on transportation facilities, exclusive of the vehicles used by KMC employees and garbage trucks, in the fiscal year 2074/75. This figure includes the expenditure of 161 representatives, including the mayor, deputy mayor, three elected members and 156 representatives of 32 wards. The KMC lacks the record of the amount of money spent by the representatives in the name of transportation facilities, and the quantity of fuel for filled in the names of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor. The KMC does not have the record of the number of ward meetings. However, a number of office bearers have been found to have claimed and received the allowances without attending the meetings. For instance, this correspondent who was at Mayor Bidhya Sundar Shakya’s secretariat on Sharawan 30 2075, encountered a ward member, who despite abstaining from a meeting, was repeatedly claiming for allowance at Mayor Bidhya Sundar Shakya’s secretariat.
Misuse of the budget in Asar
Uncontrolled expenditure at the KMC in the name of allowances under various topics, including meetings, transportation, and snacks, increases at the end of fiscal. This obviously indicates financial irregularities. According to the records, KMC spent one-fourth of the total budget in a single month. Out of the Rs. 3 crore 82 lakhs, it spent Rs 1 crore 1 lakh 27 thousand, which is 26.51 percent of the expenditure, in a single month of Asar. Unavailability of documents hindered our investigation into the issue further.
Facilities up by six folds
The KMC has been increased the expenditure budget on these three topics. In the fiscal year 2016/17, the KMC had allocated Rs. 19 lakhs 66 thousand as meeting allowances. However, after the election of the people’s representatives, the amount has been increased to Rs. one crore 25 lakhs this year in 2074/75, which means that the budget has been increased by six folds. The KMC has already spent a surplus of Rs. 33 lakhs 60 thousand from the allocated budget while it has made an estimation of Rs. one crore 53 lakhs for the current fiscal year 2018/19.
While a total of Rs 38 lakhs 25 thousand was allocated for tea/snacks in 2016/17, the figure rose to Rs. 90 lakhs in 2017/18. Later, the KMC increased the amount to Rs. one crore 20 lakhs through amendment. A budget of Rs. one crore 50 lakhs has been estimated for fiscal year 2018/19.
The KMC had allocated Rs 3 crore 10 lakhs on transportation for the fiscal year 2017/18. The expenditure was less than the allocated budget. However, the KMC has estimated that the expenditure would exceed Rs. 7 crore 5 lakh 60 thousand for the next fiscal year 2075/76.
A total of Rs. 48 lakhs was allocated in three installments of Rs. 16 lakhs as tea and snacks allowance to all 32 wards in the fiscal year 2074/75. Similarly, a total of Rs. 11 lakhs 14 thousand was spent on snacks and food during the 1st Municipal Assembly. Likewise, a total of Rs. 13 lakhs 89 lakhs, including Rs 7 lakhs at the Mayor’s office and secretariat and Rs. 6 lakhs 98 thousand at the Sabha Griha-based (City Hall) mayor’s office, have been spent in the last fiscal year. Meanwhile, a total of Rs. 5 lakhs 51 thousand have been spent at the deputy mayor’s secretariat in the last fiscal year.
Former secretary at the urban development, Kishor Thapa labels this trend as faulty. “The representatives need facilities, no doubt. But this trend has to be stopped,” he said adding that such a trend will lead to unhealthy competition.
More facilities; less work
Ask an authority at the Kathmandu Metropolitan City office whether they have accomplished their work at par with the allowances? Perhaps, the answer would be ‘no’. Peeking into the details, we found out that the KMC had introduced 187 programs under 18 different topics, including Mayor Shakya’s popular electioneering slogan of “101 works on 100 days’ for 2074/75. Mayor Shakya has put forth a 55-point work-list as “main priorities’ for 2074/75. However, none of these works, except a few, has been expedited or accomplished.
3rd Municipal Assembly. Photo courtesy: Kathmandu Metropolitan City
Making Kathmandu a smoke and dust-free, green, and environment-friendly city was Mayor Shakya’s priority. His plan was also to bring in five jets and a ‘broom’ machine in 2074/75 to get away with the dust from the roads of Kathmandu. The procurement committee and sub-committee spent around Rs. 1 lakh 67 thousand to import broom machine, jet machine, and tree trans-planter. While five jet machines have already arrived, the process to bring in five broom machines is underway.
Mayor Shakya’s ambitious plan to ease traffic jams, and run monorail in Kathmandu within three years, and to travel in public transport has been confined to papers. Interestingly, the same year of his announcement to travel in public transport, ward chairpersons and vice chairpersons of 32 wards of KMC spent more than Rs. 57 lakhs 60 thousand as transportation allowances. KMC seems to be least bothered to fulfill the aspirations of the Kathmanduites. “Ask anyone from Ason to Thamel, and you will understand how locals of this area are frustrated with Mayor Shakya,” said a local when asked to comment about KMC’s works.
In fact, Mayor Shakya, too, is dissatisfied with the KMC’s performances. “People will definitely expect from us. It’s not unusual. However, people too should try to understand that KMC undergoes a number of hurdles while working,” Mayor Shakya complained about blaming the bureaucracy of not cooperating with the peoples’ representatives. “They (employees) dilly-dally while working with the representatives. However, when they receive a call from the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), they are in action.”
