KATHMANDU, JUN 27 -
It’s a comedy of errors. Defiant ministers, lawmakers and top bureaucrats should have been brought to justice for failing to divulge their property details, but the other side of the coin is the law-breakers have still the upper hand.    

The country’s law has a mandatory provision that persons holding public posts should make public their property details within 60 days. However, 12 ministers, 158 Constituent Assembly members and 1,202 high-ranking bureaucrats have escaped the anti-graft body’s noose. This is largely because the Commission for Investigation of the Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has failed to take action against them.

High-profile ministers are roaming freely without submitting property details. Some like Transport Minister Mohammad Aftab Alam and Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare Sarba Dev Prasad Ojha, who have violated the law, are facing corruption charges.

Why has the CIAA not taken action against them? “Because they are ministers,” said CIAA Spokesman Ishwari Poudel. The CIAA is constantly asking to furnish property details, to no avail, he said. With only 17 days left to submit property statements, it is likely the CIAA may not know the high-profile politicians’ property details. 

Even Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal dilly-dallied while submitting a property statement. Only last week, he divulged property details that he should have done 10 months ago. 

According to Clause 50 of the Corruption Prevention Act-2002, persons in public office who don’t submit the statement of their property within 60 days are liable to a fine of Rs. 5,000.

“If they do not furnish property details within 20 days, we will fine them and launch a probe as per the Act’, said Poudel.

Posted on: 2010-06-28 09:05

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