The government is considering introducing a comprehensive National Public Integrity Policy to promote good governance in public offices, the private sector and non-government organisations.

Officials at the Prime Minister’s Office said discussions were going on to prepare a comprehensive policy against corruption. Currently, the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority is the body that looks into corruption in public offices while regulatory agencies such as the Department of Money Laundering Investigation and the Department of Revenue Investigation look into money laundering activities and tax dodging by the private sector.

There is Social Welfare Council to oversee the non-government sector but questions are being raised about the effectiveness of these bodies.

Dilli Raj Sharma, joint secretary at the PMO who oversees the good-governance department, said discussions were being held at the bureaucratic level for introducing a comprehensive policy that has measures necessary to prevent corruption in the government and non-government sectors. “The plan is being mulled also to develop an anti-corruption mechanism in line with the United Nations Convention against Corruption to which Nepal is a party,” said Sharma. The UN calls for preventive measures and criminalisation of the most prevalent forms of corruption in both public and private sectors. It also requires the member countries to return assets obtained through corruption to the nation from which they were stolen.

As the government is drafting a new Anti-Corruption Act, the CIAA has asked the government to draft the law in line with the convention demanding jurisdiction to check corruption at the private sector.

According to Sharma, the planned policy aims to encourage corporate ethics in the private sector which would help address corruption in the public sector. “There can also be a provision of either strengthening the existing institutions or forming new ones to look into corruption in the non-government sector,” he told the Post.