Machhapuchhre Rural Municipality Ranks First in Kaski District Performance Evaluation

Pokhara. Machhapuchhre Rural Municipality has been judged the best in the district in the performance evaluation conducted by the National Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission. According to the results published by the Commission, Machhapuchhre Rural Municipality secured the first position in the district by obtaining 70.08 points.

This municipality was also first last year. According to the Commission's data, Annapurna Rural Municipality is in second place with 69.56 points, while Rupa Rural Municipality scored 63.45 points. Pokhara Metropolitan City scored 58.76 points, and Mardi Rural Municipality achieved 48.32 points, the Commission stated.

The Commission has set a total of 17 indicators for the evaluation of local levels. The evaluation considers factors such as whether the budget was published by Ashadh 10 and passed by the end of Ashadh, the amount of revenue collected from property registration, entertainment, and advertisement tax that should be given to the provincial government being deposited monthly into the Provincial Reserve Fund, the status of budget projection and submission to the Ministry of Finance for the upcoming fiscal year, and whether the budget review was published by the end of Kartik.

Similarly, indicators related to education and health, such as revenue mobilization, budget expenditure status, settlement of audit irregularities, use of Sutra software, student enrollment and retention rate in Grade 9, SEE results, prenatal check-ups, and complete immunization of children, were also taken as a basis. Based on the scores from this performance evaluation conducted by the Fiscal Commission, the federal government provides fiscal equalization grants to the local levels in the upcoming fiscal year.

This result is published every year to encourage local levels to work result-oriented and to make them competitive in their financial empowerment. Chief Administrative Officer Keshav Subedi informed that along with the result obtained by the municipality, the budget for the next year will also increase. 'Being first consecutively is a matter of pride not only for us but for all the residents of the municipality,' he said, 'We will strive to maintain this standard.'