Former Finance Minister Rameswor Khanal on Corruption and Misgovernance

KATHMANDU. Former Finance Minister Rameswor Khanal has expressed the view that corruption and misgovernance begin precisely from the point where officials holding powerful public positions fail to distinguish between their private and public lives.

In a comment made public on social media Facebook, he discussed how middlemen misuse power.

Khanal mentioned that visitors who come to meet at their residence first praise the spouse profusely. Depending on the opportunity and the person, they address them with words like Madam, Madam, Minister's wife, Husband, or Your Honor, sing their praises, and if there are children at home, they start by bringing chocolates and gradually bring expensive gifts.

He revealed that if they have pets, they come with treats and become dear even to the puppy. Khanal stated that once they become dear to everyone in the house, it is not difficult for them to get their desired wishes fulfilled by those powerful officials.

After that, they expand their sphere of influence in such a way that they start ordering even the lower-level decision-making officials of the concerned bodies as if they themselves are the main officials. He claimed that the disease in our governance system before the Gen Z rebellion was exactly this.

Former Finance Secretary Khanal made this comment based on the description of a businessman who personally witnessed a person with such a middleman character verbally abusing high-ranking officials from some ministries without even allowing them to sit in chairs in a meeting room of a luxurious hotel in Kathmandu.