Major reshuffle in Finance Ministry

KATHMANDU, NOV 24 -

In a major reshuffle, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has transferred 14 of its top officials. Though the reshuffle rumour was making the rounds in the MoF for quite sometime, nobody had expected a transfer of this kind would happen anytime soon.

Sources said the reshuffle that has baffled many smacks of political interference as some competent joint-secretaries have been transferred to less important departments while those with a mediocre track record have been given plump posts. MoF sources said Maoist-affiliated employees’ union and Prime Minister baburam Bhattarai’s wife Hisila Yami played an instrumental role in the transfers.

Many see the transfer of Inland Revenue Department (IRD) Director General Rajan Khanal to the MoF and Deputy Director General Laxman Aryal to the Department of Customs as a ‘penalty’ for their good job in the investigation of the much-talked-about Value Added Tax (VAT) evasion scam.

Both Khanal and Aryal had played a key role in the VAT probe. Aryal, considered a tax expert in the ministry, was the lead officer in the investigations. “The motive behind Khanal and Aryal’s transfer seems to be to weaken the VAT probe,” an MoF source said.

Khanal has been replaced by Tanka Mani Sharma, the director general of the Department of Customs. Even before the transfer, there were rumuors of Sharma eyeing the IRD. In Sharma’s place came Rana Bahadur Shrestha who was at the Ministry of Sports.

With the latest reshuffle, Rana Bahadur Shrestha has entered the MoF again. During the then Finance Minister Baburam Bhattarai’s tenure, Shrestha was made the chief of the budget division, but he was later transferred to the Revenue Advisory Committee. Shrestha made an exit from the MoF during Surendra Pandey’s tenure.

Large Taxpayers Office (LTO) chief Suresh Pradhan has been replaced by Ananda Dhakal, currently serving as the deputy director general at the Customs Department. The transfer of Pradhan, who has an accounts background and has an experience of working in the Revenue Tribunal, from the LTO is also surprising. The LTO has been investigating 96 firms involved in the fake VAT bills scam. Dhakal, who had entered the Finance Ministry one-and-a-half years ago, had spent most of his career at the Ministry of Local Development.

The reshuffle shows that the MoF top honchos have not cared about institutional memory and developing competency within the ministry and its departments. The manner in which two joint-secretaries—Khum Raj Punjali and Madhu Marasini—have been transferred illustrates this fact.

Marasini, as deputy director general of the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI), has played an important role in setting up the Department of Money Laundering Investigation (DoMLI). However, he was recalled to the ministry when the DoLMI was set up and Khum Raj Punjali was made the director general. Marasini has now been transferred to the IRD as deputy director general.

Punjali now finds himself as the chief of the Corporation Coordination Division in the MoF after spending just four months at the DoLMI. In four months, Punjali had launched a five-year strategy on anti-money laundering.

Punjali has been replaced by Mukti Narayan Poudel, the joint-secretary at the Public Procurement Monitoring Office (PPMO). Poudel had earlier worked as chief of Aiport Customs during the former Maoist-led government. He was transferred to Nepal Trust Office in October 2009 by the UML-led government.

After a gap of two years, Janma Jaya Regmi is back as chief of the Administrative Division at MoF. Regmi was transferred out of the finance ministry after two officers stole files related to the investigation and handed them to taxpayers concerned at the No 2 Inland Revenue Office where he was chief.

Transfers

Names    Then    Now

Rajan Khanal    DG, Inland Revenue Department    Chief, Monitoring and Evaluation Division, MoF

Khum Raj Punjali      DG, Department of Money Laundering Investigation    Chief, Corporation Coordination, MoF

Tanka Mani Sharma    DG, Department of Customs    DG, Inland Revenue Department

Rana Bahadur Shrestha    Joint Secretary, Ministry of Sports    DG, Department of Customs

Madhu Marasini    Joint-Secretary, MoF    DDG, Inland Revenue Department

Laxman Aryal    DDG, Inland Revenue Department    DDG, Department of Customs

Byagendra Poudel    Joint Secretary, Ministry of Industry    Chief, Revenue Advisory Committee, MoF

Ananda Dhakal    DDG, Department of Customs    Chief, Large Taxpayers Office

Suresh Pradhan    Chief, Large Taxpayers Office    Office of the Financial Comptroller General

Janmajaya Regmi    Ministry of Home Affairs    Chief, Administrative Division, MoF

Mukti Narayan Poudel    Public Procurement Monitoring Office    DG, Department of Money Laundering Investigation

Ram Saran Pudasaini    Chief, Corporation Coordination Division    Chief, No 1 Inland Revenue Office

Rajendra Laudary    Joint Secretary, Election Commission    DDG, Department of Revenue Investigation

Shishir Dhungana    DDG, Department of Revenue Investigation    Chief, Airport Customs

Source: Kantipur