As preliminary audit showed sharp rise in irregularities, the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration has warned chiefs of offices under the ministry to keep unaccounted transactions (irregularities) below four percent for fiscal year 2017-18.

As per the new action plan and guideline on clearance of irregularities prepared by the ministry, government staffers have been directed to avoid any transaction turning into irregularities from the amount spent in fiscal 2017-18. At least, such amount should not be more than 4 percent of the  total transactions, the action plan says.

The Financial Procedure Act defines irregularities as the volume of transactions done without following due legal procedure, those not accounted and done inappropriately.

“Office chiefs and account chiefs and other staff under the ministry will be subject to necessary actions, and their performance will also be judged while evaluating their performance for promotion and carrier development opportunities,” the action plan states.

As of fiscal year 2017-18, the amount of irregularities under the ministry stands

at Rs19.63 billion, up by over Rs8 billion from the previous fiscal.

According to the Office of Auditor General, outstanding irregularities of all the government offices stood at over Rs500 billion as of fiscal 2016-17.

Secretary at the ministry Dinesh Thapaliya said such amount increased in the last fiscal year due to delay in reimbursement of around Rs3 billion—the amount

spent in the World Bank funded projects.

The relatively higher percentage of improper spending in District Coordination Committees (almost 39 percent) because of the delay in clearance during transitional period to federal set up also increased the overall amount.

The ministry has given different targets for offices under it to clear the irregularities. They have to eradicate outstanding irregularities since last several years to until fiscal 2002-03.

According to OAG, there are amounts related to irregularities since the Panchayat era. For the outstanding irregularities between the fiscal year 2003-04 and fiscal 2015-16, target has been set at 80 percent. The outstanding irregularities from the transactions of fiscal year 2016-17 should be cleared cent percent, according to the Action Plan.

“As per the law, responsible government employees will be penalised with fine of Rs50. Although it is not a big penalty in terms of value, but a symbol bad mark in the career of a civil servant,” said Thapaliya.