Key ministers absent in joint parliamentary meeting

KATHMANDU, Dec 23:

Key ministers abstained from a discussion on development agendas organized by Joint Parliamentary Committee on Monday.

The first of its kind discussion was organized by Agriculture and Water Resources Committee, Finance Committee, and Development Committee of the legislature-parliament to deliberate on important development issues like budget and streamlining developmental problems. Though the committee had invited 12 ministers, Minister for Local Development Prakash Man Singh, Minister for Finance Ram Sharan Mahat and Minister for Energy Radha Gyawali to participate in the discussion were not present in Monday´s meeting.

Rabindra Adhikari, chairman of Development Committee who also chairs the Joint Parliamentary Committee, said all ministers, except Minister for Information and Communications Minendra Rijal, who is out of the country, deliberately abstained from the meeting.

Prime Minister Sushil Koirala and five ministers, including Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Bimalendra Nidhi, were present in the meeting.

The meeting was organized to solve cross-cutting issues and implement development programs in a coordinated manner.“

"The absence of key ministers shows that they do pay sufficient attention to developmental activiti”s," lamented Adhikari. He further said the joint parliamentary committee would organize similar meeting in the near future, making it mandatory for ministers to attend it.

Lawmakers Chandra Bhandari and Kamala Panta said it was surprising that responsible ministers do not have time to talk about development agendas.

Joint Parliamentary Committee was formed after recurrent reports of lack of inter-ministerial coordination affecting development programs were presented in separate development committees.

Adhikari said he would organize similar meetings every four months after getting updates on implementation of development programs from concerned agencies.

Prakash Jwala, chairman of Finance Committee, said development agendas were being ignored in parliamentary as well as political party meetings.

Speaking at the meeting, PM Koirala said meetings like these are important toward for smooth implementation of development programs. He, however, spent much of his time talking about political consensus.

PALTRY PROGRESS IN CAPITAL EXPENDITURE

Capital expenditure in the first five months of the current fiscal year is disappointing. Of the total budget of Rs 116.75 billion allocated for capital expenditure in 2014/15, only Rs 10 billion has been spent so far.

Chairman of Agriculture and Water Resources Committee Gagan Thapa said sluggish progress in capital expenditure has failed to stimulate private sector investmen“. "It´s been already five months that budgetary allocation was made, but the ministries are yet to approve development progra”s," added Thapa.

Concerned ministers and ministries, however, are not serious on the issue. Lack of necessary preparation, low bidding, lack of coordination among government agencies and the culture of working in the eleventh hour are the main reason behind slow progress in capital expenditure.

"The ministries are dilly-dallying on preparation of drafts of different laws despite our frequent directions. These laws are crucial to get rid of impediments to development activities," added Thapa. He emphasized the need to announce reward and punishment system to make civil servants accountable. Thapa criticized obstruction of development programs by cadres of political parties and asked PM Koirala to address the problem.

Prakash Jwala, chairman of Finance Committee, said civil servants were hesitating to take decisions, fearing action from the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), as we don´t have a provision of punishment for indecisiveness.

Development budget worth Rs 25 billion froze last year in the lack of timely implementation of development programs.

MINISTRY WEBSITES NOT UPDATED

Adhikari said ministries were not updating their programs and activities in their respective websites. "I have scanned websites of almost all the ministries. But neither of them had updated information," he added.

Adhikari also asked ministries to update their websites on a regular basis.

Source: Republica