National
1,020 public officials fail to submit property details
Over 1,000 public officials from elected representatives and the government employees at the local levels have not submitted their property details, National Vigilance Centre data, updated up to Tuesday, shows.Prithvi Man Shrestha
Over 1,000 public officials from elected representatives and the government employees at the local levels have not submitted their property details, National Vigilance Centre data, updated up to Tuesday, shows.
The NVC has received property details of 75,858 public officials at the local levels as on Tuesday.
Almost five months have passed since the last fiscal year 2017-18 ended, yet 1,020 public officials from the local levels have not submitted their property details.
Clause 50 of the Corruption Prevention Act-2002 stipulates ‘a public official should submit personal property details within 60 days of assuming any public office, and those engaged in a public office should submit the details within 60 days of completing each fiscal year.
“We are yet to receive details from around 200 local units. So number of those submitting property details and those failing to do will increase,” said Bishnu Raj Lamichhane, spokesperson at the NVC.
The NVC does not have details about how many public officials should submit property details at the local levels. It believes it could be over 100,000 including elected local representatives, locally recruited staffs, temporary teachers and other staffs at the local levels. They should submit the property details at the concerned local government offices as per the notice issued by the government in Nepal Gazette on June 4 this year.
There is no data available to compare whether there has been any improvement in submission of property details. As the elections were not held in all the local units, the NVC had not made the property details of local levels as a part of its report on the issue.
As many as 131 elected local representatives had not submitted the property details last year, according to NVC. The government employees working at local levels had submitted their property details to the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development. So, comparative data of two years is not available currently.
After collecting the property details, the NVC submits its report to Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), the constitutional anti-graft body.
The CIAA imposes a fine of Rs5,000 on those who fail to submit property details as per the anti-corruption law and such person may be subject to corruption investigation.
As per the government’s notice, the local governments should submit the property details received from the individuals to the Office of Chief Minister at the Provinces within 30 days after the submission deadline property details. They should also submit the same details to the NVC through software within two months after the submission deadline.
It means, the NVC should receive details from the local levels by mid-November through the software system. Around 200 local units have not yet submitted the details, mostly from Province 2. They have not entered property details in the software, according to NVC.
Almost all local units from Province 5 have entered property details into software and it is available at the NVC.
The NVC has not received the details from the local units such as Biratnagar Metropolitan City, Hetauda Sub-Metropolitan City, Kalaiya Sub-Metropolitan City, Dhankuta Municipality, Budhanilkantha Municipality, and Dhuli Bheri Municipality.
Biratnagar Metropolitan City and Hetauda Sub-Metropolitan city officials told the Post they have already submitted details to the respective offices of Chief Ministers.
“We are entering the details in the system,” said Kumar Prasad Dahal, chief administrative officer at Biratnagar Metropolis.