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Local bodies under NVC scanner over fund misuse
KATHMANDU, AUG 31 -
In the wake of speculation that a large amount of development budget allocated for local bodies was misused mainly in the name of “paper projects”, the National Vigilance Centre (NVC) has deployed its high-level officials to investigate the cases.
The NVC move comes amid media reports that around Rs. 3 billion of the budget allocated for the local bodies was transferred into bank accounts that cannot be frozen breaching the existing law and a similar amount of the budget has been missing from the account.
To that end, the NVC has started its nationwide investigation from the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), said the officials.
“It’s our mission to investigate the irregularities of local bodies and the team will be mobilised in other districts as well, “said NVC Chief Executive Officer Tana Gautam.
The probe team led by Joint Secretary Shyam Raj Khanal has been investigating the KMC-launched development projects and total amount allocated for them, project sites and auditing process. The probe committee includes Senior Divisional Engineer Kedar Man Prajapati, Superintendent of Police Roshan Nath Panta, under secretaries Arjun Prasad Khanal and Sher Bahadur Dhungana and Accounts Officer Laxmi Devi Regmi. As soon as the probe panel started investigation, the KMC has returned Rs. 12.4 million to the central accounts that was transferred into foolproof before the last fiscal year ended.
On Aug 20, during a high-level meeting held at the Office of the Prime Minister, Chief Secretary Madhav Prasad Ghimire, Finance Secretary Rameshwor Khanal and Join Secretary at the Ministry of Local Development Som Lal Subedi had agreed to submit a report carrying out a joint investigation into the missing amounts.
Sources said the finance ministry is unaware about Rs. 3 billion that was spent from the Account C from June 29 to July 27. Ministries of Finance and Local Development had also agreed to unearth the facts on the disappearance of funds and submit a report to the NVC within a week but no progress has been made so far. As they failed to meet the deadline, the NVC dispatched a letter seeking clarification on the delay.
Posted on: 2010-09-01 08:16
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