Six Office Chiefs Changed in One Year at Bara Infrastructure Office, Projects Stalled

Bara. In the last one year, 6 office chiefs have been changed at the Infrastructure Development Office in Bara district, under the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure Development, Madhesh Province government.

In that office, Rimpuk Kumari Yadav held the acting chief responsibility for 4 months until October 9 of the current fiscal year, Sanjay Kumar Yadav for 21 days, and Omkumar Sah for 6 months until March 10.

After Omkumar, Rajendra Sah served as acting office chief for 20 days, Hemant Gai for 1 month, and currently Omkumar Sah again (since May 25) has taken charge as the office chief.

With the office chief changing 6 times in just one year, all projects of the provincial government for the current fiscal year have been stalled. Due to frequent changes in office chiefs and the absence of assigned individuals, Bara district has suffered significant losses this year.

For the current fiscal year, 378 projects were initiated for the 16 local levels in the district at a cost of 1 billion 38 crore 9 lakh. Except for old multi-year projects and those to appease provincial assembly members' cadres, all other projects are in a state of limbo.

The Provincial Civil Service Act states that the service period for an office chief should be a minimum of 2 years. If a transfer is necessary during the tenure, the provision is to assign them on a temporary basis.

However, at the office under the Provincial Ministry of Physical Infrastructure Development, there is a problem of no one wanting to come to the office and employees who are assigned responsibilities not staying at the office.

After the acting office chief Rajendra Kumar Sah, who is accused of embezzling 14 crore in the name of Madan Bhandari Housing Construction and Nidhi Niwas program, went incommunicado, Hemant Gai took charge as chief on April 22.

Gai, who returned to the ministry with the title of office chief hanging on the board, was not frequently present at the office.

According to sources close to him, he returned to the ministry citing security reasons after provincial assembly members and their cadres threatened to kill him over the formation of consumer committees and project implementation.

Sources from the infrastructure office stated that the followers and cadres of provincial assembly members would form up to 3 consumer committees for the same project and come to the office with letters in separate groups, intimidating the employees.

The current office chief, Omkumar Sah, also complained that there is no conducive environment to work at the office due to security challenges from provincial assembly members.

Currently, the local administration has deployed 2 police personnel to the office for the security of the employees.

The practice of the Provincial Ministry of Finance withholding budget throughout the year and releasing it only at the end of the fiscal year also creates problems in starting projects on time and ensuring quality work.

Office chief Sah said that due to frequent changes in office chiefs during the current fiscal year, important decisions could not be made, and projects remained stalled. 'Because there was no chief, the projects could not be awarded, and they remained stuck. We couldn't award new contracts this year,' he said, 'The impact of this is significant.'

This year, there were 16 projects up to 10 lakh, 244 projects between 10 to 25 lakh, 86 projects between 25 to 50 lakh, and 32 projects above 50 lakh for the 16 local levels in the district. The Infrastructure Office handles work such as drinking water, road paving, drain construction, road maintenance, and construction of monasteries and dharamshalas.

Due to frequent changes in office chiefs, only 13 out of 86 projects between 25 to 50 lakh have gone into the bidding process, according to the Infrastructure Office. This year, 32 projects above 50 lakh could not be implemented.

Under the 'One Constituency, One Road' program, 8 projects (multi-year) costing over 1 crore for paving a 5 km road are being worked on this year, according to the Infrastructure Office. Work is also underway on 4 old multi-year projects, including the sanitation campaign.

Work is also being carried out on 260 projects up to 10 lakh and between 10 to 35 lakh through consumer committees in areas without disputes, said Chief Sah. 'We couldn't do anything until the end of March as the Ministry of Finance had frozen the budget,' he said, 'We have been working since the day the budget was released.'

The practice of the Provincial Ministry of Finance withholding budget throughout the year and releasing it only at the end of the fiscal year also creates problems in starting projects on time and ensuring quality work.

The Infrastructure Office implements projects under 25 lakh through consumer committees and projects between 25 lakh to 50 lakh through a 30-day public notice (tender) bidding process.

These projects are in the implementation phase after May 15. The quality of work started in haste after signing agreements in the last week of May is also expected to be low.

'Half of May is spent on project agreements. We have limited technical capacity, so the pressure of work is high at the end,' said Office Chief Sah. 'We have made lab testing mandatory for quality. Technicians have also gone to the field for monitoring.'

The Infrastructure Office has 5 technicians, including 1 permanent employee, for project monitoring. Some other technicians have been hired on a daily wage basis, according to Sah.

Collusion in Work

Sarda Shankarprasad Kalwar, a provincial assembly member from Bara 2 (1), commented that the Minister of Physical Infrastructure appoints his own people as office chiefs for commission.

In a conversation with Ratopati, Assembly Member Kalwar revealed that there is a setting in the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure regarding who to send as the head of infrastructure.

'The Infrastructure Development Office is very bad. Everything is done through collusion,' he said. 'There is a game of commission going on. Today too, consumers went to beat up the chief and the engineer.'

Kalwar complained that although 15 crore was released for 300 houses under the Janata Awas program for the poor, Dalits, and extremely poor, Triloki Chaudhary, Rabindra Shrestha, and Mohammad Samir took commissions after distributing the houses, but he was not given any projects under that program.

He stated that even though he raised his voice in the assembly regarding the irregularities seen in the Infrastructure Office, it was not heard.

'I am disgusted with politics. There is a game of commission in all projects,' he said. 'This politics is useless. I will now retire from politics.'

Devnarayan Chaudhary, a provincial assembly member from Bara 4 (1), complained that he was a victim of the employees at the Infrastructure Office. 'I myself am a victim of the Infrastructure Office chief,' he said. 'My projects were sold off by the chief without my knowledge.'