Karnali Province Government Allocates Budget Against Its Own Guidelines

Surkhet. The Karnali Province Government has formulated the 'Project Proposal and Selection Process Procedure'. It clearly states that projects related to road and building infrastructure should not be selected for less than 50 lakhs, and others for less than 20 lakhs. Small irrigation projects have been kept out of this limit, which means they can be implemented at a lower cost. It is also mentioned that the selection of projects should be based on their contribution to the province's rapid economic growth, priority or comparative advantage areas, and contribution to achieving sustainable development goals.

According to the procedure, projects are now recommended from the district level, not through the previous 'window' system. Chief Minister Yamlal Kandel has also given clear instructions: 'Please focus on strategic projects rather than institutions, foundations, or monasteries.' The objective of the project selection procedure is for ordinary citizens to be able to demand projects according to their needs, and for middlemen and influential people to be discouraged. However, in the budget presented by Rajiv Vikram Shah, Minister of Economic Affairs and Planning of Karnali Province, for the upcoming fiscal year (2083/084), projects have been prioritized against the procedure and instructions. Projects have been selected based on the influence of ministers, MPs, and leaders' close associates, rather than the needs of the people. Some MPs themselves are saying that the budget has been prioritized based on fragmented and influential projects, and that the budget has come in a distributive rather than a results-oriented manner. The leader of the main opposition party, the Nepali Communist Party, Mangal Bahadur Shahi, said that project formulation has gone beyond the limits set in the agreements and procedures made between the ruling and opposition parties in the past regarding the control of fragmented projects. 'We had designated specific areas and agreed not to enter them,' he said, 'but now the government has openly entered the prohibited areas.' He claims that the budget has been distributed to institutions in the names of leaders, personal industries, and personal foundations. 'It was our past agreement not to allocate budget to such areas,' Shahi added. He also said that the budget is not balanced. This money has not come from taxes paid by people from any specific place. He stated that their own policies, methods, and understanding have been violated, and budget has been allocated to projects below 20 lakhs. On the roads, 10 lakhs, 15 lakhs are seen, while the procedure states not to go below 50 lakhs. According to him, these should either be clarified as ongoing projects, or they are projects against their own procedures. Shahi further says, 'On the other hand, there is a line of fragmented projects; it was said that fragmented projects should not be done, and large projects should be done. We thought, perhaps our budget books would also come out smaller now.' But looking at it, the book came out larger than before, with a line of fragmented projects. Former Chief Minister and leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party, Jeevan Bahadur Shahi, said that the budget has been brought in a way that makes the strong places even stronger and the weak places even weaker. 'This will widen the gap further,' Shahi added, 'the budget should be brought in a way that lifts up the weak places.' As the MPs have said, even though projects are selected within the limits of projects to be implemented by the province, the priority is given to projects like embankments, school fencing, and shrines of clan deities, monasteries, according to their preferences. Currently, Chief Minister Yamlal Kandel himself argued that the government should not invest in unproductive sectors. Although the Chief Minister instructed not to distribute the budget to institutions in the names of leaders, an amount of 20 lakhs has been given under the title 'Embankment near the statue of the late leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai' in Birendranagar Municipality-5 under the budget of the Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment, to be implemented by the province. According to the project details, although most of the projects under this ministry are within the limits, projects like landslide control, fencing, and embankment have been included based on influence. Dozens of projects for shrines and temples of clan deities of castes and families, such as 'Pandey Samaj Kalika Mandir Sanrakshan', 'Darmakot Maibhagwati Mandir', 'Bhadrakali', 'Radhakrishna Mandir', 'Shiva, Parvati/Krishna Mandir', 'Navadurga Bhagwati Mandir', 'Munal Community Park', 'Bhagwati Park', 'Bhasta Bhavani Mandir' have been included. A park has been built in the name of Congress's late leader Tapt Bista with an allocation of 20 lakhs. Planning Commission Itself is Surprised! Large projects must be entered into the project bank, and the Planning Commission prioritizes those projects. This time, due to lack of time, the Ministry of Finance had asked to allocate budget for strategic and ambitious projects with a clear circular. However, upon seeing the projects included in the budget after its public release, even the officials of the Planning Commission are surprised. 'We are also surprised, why should we make procedures if they are not followed?' an official of the commission told Ratopati. 'Small projects also seem to be included.' The official said that it will be studied after the ministry-wise budget book comes out whether these projects are pending from the past or are new. Currently, the Ministry of Finance is responsible for all the issues raised regarding the budget. Ashok Nath Yogi, a member of the Planning Commission, also said that projects have been included by violating the objective of the procedure. 'It seems that some projects different from what we said and circulated have been included,' he said. This time, the budget has become entirely minister-centric, according to ministry officials. 'That project bank is just for show, the budget is chief minister and minister-centric,' an official told Ratopati. 'In the project bank, there are only projects of those bigwigs, MPs, and influential people, not of ordinary citizens.' Furthermore, sources say that this time even the MPs themselves have been allowed to select projects within the limits. Previously, MPs used to receive budgets under the 'Constituency Development Program'. Later, that was stopped after going to the Supreme Court. However, internally, Yamlal Kandel has been providing the facility of receiving budget to all 40 MPs for the last two years since becoming Chief Minister. Proportional MPs have been allocated 1 crore 50 lakhs and direct MPs have been allocated 5 crores. 'MPs were told to select projects of the same amount within the limits of the procedure,' sources say. Now that they have received the budget and projects as they wished, most MPs are silent about the irregularities within the budget. Leader's Wine Industry in Conditional Budget Not only projects to be implemented by the province, but also conditional grant projects are subject to influence. According to CPN (UML) MP Krishna Bahadur GC, budget has been allocated to a wine industry of a former UML MP in Dolpa. Similarly, a project has been given in Birendranagar as 'Deep boring near so-and-so's house'. 'Even though it is a conditional grant project, it is not appropriate to allocate funds in that way,' he said, 'the province's Ministry of Finance is the one providing the budget.' Government Itself Says – Fragmented Projects Could Not Be Controlled Instead of focusing on controlling fragmented projects according to its own plans and procedures, the government admits that it has not been able to control them. Rajiv Vikram Shah, Minister of Economic Affairs and Planning, admitted this in the budget speech itself. This not only raises questions about Minister Shah's competence but also leads to accusations that such projects are being included in the budget under his protection. 'Collective efforts have been made towards efficiency in budget allocation, effectiveness in implementation, and maintaining financial discipline,' he said, 'but still, the tendency to demand budget for small and fragmented projects rather than large infrastructure development of long-term importance has not been completely stopped.' Same Old Talk About Projects Again In the new budget, Shah has reiterated the old points. He stated that the process of identification and selection of projects to be operated by the provincial government will be further systematized. For this, it is mentioned that the project bank management system will be made more simplified, automated, and systematic. Although such things have been proposed since the past, due to the lack of proper implementation, the mismanagement in project selection has not stopped yet.