KATHMANDU: The Madhesh Province Government included a provision in its budget for fiscal year 2024/25, requiring all development expenditure to be conducted through open competition (tender process). The budget was presented by then Finance Minister Bharat Sah of the CPN (Maoist Center) in Chief Minister Satish Kumar Singh’s Janamat Party-led government.
The competitive bidding provision was introduced after realizing that development work through consumer committees was being used to pocket commission, compromising the quality of work. Six months into the fiscal year, the provincial government has been unable to spend its capital budget. Due to disagreements between ruling coalition parties over whether to conduct development work through open competition or consumer committees, the province managed to spend only 0.39% of its capital budget in the first five months of the fiscal year.
The ruling coalition partners were dissatisfied with the budget provision which made competitive bidding mandatory for development works. The main reason was that the competitive bidding process prevented them from distributing projects to their party workers. Since this mandatory requirement ended the practice of ‘selling’ project contracts for 10-15% of the project costs through relevant ministries, province assembly members had no say in budget spending.
A resolution motion to allow the implementation of development projects through consumer committees was approved by a majority vote in the Madhesh Province Assembly on Monday.
Now, the Madhesh Province Government has opened the way for distributing projects to party workers by amending the budget provisions through a resolution motion. The motion to allow implementation of development projects through consumer committees was approved by a majority vote in the Madhesh Province Assembly on Monday. The motion, which was registered by Rupa Kumari Yadav of the ruling coalition partner Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (LSP), was supported by Hasina Khatun of Janamat Party, Palti Mahara of CPN-UML and Anjana Pandit of Nepali Congress as well as opposition province assembly members – Kanchan Bichha of Rastriya Prajatantra Party and Ratneshwar Goit of CPN (Unified Socialist).
Main opposition party Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) Nepal’s Chief Whip Ram Ashish Yadav demanded a vote division on the resolution motion. In the voting, only the province assembly members from JSP Nepal, Maoist Center and Unified Socialist voted against the motion. Forty-three province assembly members out of 59 present in the voting voted in favor of the motion.
Only 59 out of 107 provincial assembly members were present during Sunday’s session.
The passage of the resolution motion has paved the way for the province government to implement development budget through consumer committees.
Upendra Mahat of LSP said consumer committees should not be viewed negatively just because they comprise party workers and voters. “Consumer committees are formed from workers and voters. Are these people corrupt,” he said during discussion on the motion. He claimed that consumer committees in his constituency have not been involved in corrupt practices.
Former Finance Minister Bharat Sah said the budget provision was amended through the resolution motion to continue the past practice of selling project contracts to pocket commission.
The government has presented a budget of Rs 43.89 billion – Rs 16.007 billion in recurrent expenses and Rs 27.89 billion in capital expenses – in the current fiscal year.
Former Finance Minister Sah, who is also the Maoist Center’s parliamentary party leader in the province assembly, said the budget provision was amended through the resolution motion to continue the past practice of selling project contracts to pocket commission. He claimed the government deliberately did not initiate the tender process with the intention of collecting commissions by getting work done through consumer committees. “There was no intention to advance the tender process from the beginning. The government has wasted time unnecessarily,” Sah told Himal Press over phone. “The resolution proposal is illegal. Even though its is passed by parliament, it cannot become a law.”
JSP Nepal’s Chief Whip Yadav also said implementing development work through consumer committees is a ploy to sell project contracts to pocket commission. “They have made a mockery of the resolution proposal and the province assembly. An experiment not found anywhere else in the world has been done here,” said Yadav. “Handling budget is not the job of province assembly members. Their job is to make law and policy.”
