Civic Actions Key To Curbing Corruption

Of the seven hundred fifty three local governments, most of them have unveiled their annual budget last week according to the provision stipulated by law. However, around forty local governments have failed to deliver their annual budget owing to internal governments. Even the annual budget endorsement of the Kathmandu metropolitan city for the upcoming year is also deadlocked due to political and perspectival differences. Almost two years have elapsed since democratic local elections was held in 2079 B.S. which had imparted a fresh vigour into the body politic of local democracy in Nepal. 

It had given rise to a new optimism and hope for democratic renewal and rejuvenation of democratic institutions in the country. Local elections did also pose a kind of challenge to the traditional political parties which do keep guarding zealously the traditional pattern of organisational ethos and leadership. The local elections had signaled that the parties could lose their relevance and meaning should they fail to attend and respond to the needs and aspirations of the people in an accountable and democratic way. 

Development agenda

The surprising victory of the independent candidates such as Balen Shah in Kathmandu metropolis, Gopal Hamal in Dhangadhi, and Harka Rai in Dharan had sent the message that the voters and constituents can rise above the partisan alignment and throw their full weight behind the candidates who has a convincing message for delivery and demonstrate their commitment to integrity and accountability. Another strong indication that can be inferred from the elections results is that people no longer vote along the geographical and ethnic divide, and they seem to be more interested in governance and development agenda than in the ethnic and communal cleavages, as harped by the political leaders time and again. 

Moreover, the local polls had confirmed that the local government executives who had failed to perform and deliver to meet the minimum expectations of the people were badly beaten in the polls. According the analysis of the local elections results held, around sixty to seventy per cent local government executives who made repeat attempt to return to the posts they held for the terms beginning from 2074 B.S. failed to get elected because of their poor performance and delivery record.

In fact, the local government leaders running the municipalities and rural municipalities during the previous tenure had been alleged to be lured into corrupt practices and irregularities. A letter sent by the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) to the ministries and authorities concerned recently indicates that municipalities and rural municipalities have degenerated into one of the corrupt agencies in the country. A big horde of complaints indicting the local government leaders directly or indirectly had been registered with the CIAA during the previous fiscal years. This establishes that governance practices at the local level had become weak.

It was largely expected that elected representative would become accountable and governance would improve in a meaningful way compared to the previous period. But the spate of the cases of irregularities and corrupt practices, according to the media reports, did not decline     and poor governance at the local level could not be improved. The elected representatives in some cases became so arrogant and errant that there was a persistent tendency to breach laws and rules with impunity. 

Some local governments have been reported to be spending money in projects which had not been discussed and endorsed by the local assembly. Not only the equalisation grants but conditional grants provided by the Centre had also been misused at many local governments. However, these allegations leveled against the local governments had been brushed aside by the local government authorities time and again.  It must be thus admitted that there are several public finance management related challenges and risks, including fiscal indiscipline at the local level. Though financial laws and regulations are enacted to enforce fiscal discipline, they are not fully complied and followed. 

An analysis of the budget data confirms poor prioritisation of projects and programmes, leading to spending in non-prioritised areas and sectors. Also, several projects had been listed under priority projects and were considered and approved more on political grounds than on strategic importance. Moreover, poor internal control and weak enforcement of corrective measures against irregularities constitute the challenges to aggravate fiduciary and corruption risks at the local level. 

Capacity development

Given the substantial number of public finance management-related challenges and risks at the local level, both the elected and non-elected officials at the local level need to ensure that such risks are overcome, corrupt practices fully discouraged and fought off. Besides the measures to enforce fiscal discipline, there is a need to build capacity of local governments both at the organisational and individual level. Such capacity development actions need to be implemented thorough assessment of the needs, obligations and expectations. The present government in its policy and programmes and budget statement announced last month has talked at length about the programmes for capacity development of local governments. 

But such initiatives should be designed in such way that they are demand-driven and result oriented. Likewise, there is a need for digitisation of the public finance management system, including the information and asset management systems to reduce the risks of irregularities and wasteful expenditure of resources.  In addition to it, local citizens should also be substantively encouraged and empowered to have a meaningful space to engage with local government through hearings, audits and consultations to set local governance and development agenda and to seek accountability and responsiveness from the local authorities. 

(The author is presently associated with Policy Research Institute (PRI) as a senior research fellow.  rijalmukti@gmail.com)