Transparency in NA Welfare Fund

If the Nepal Army (NA) continues to stand as an obstacle to the formation of a high-level task force mandated to submit a draft “Working Procedures and Directives” for its cash-rich Welfare Fund, review and revisit its present status and recommend depositing the money in safer financial institutions within two months of it being formed, its image as a clean and transparent institution is certainly going to take a serious beating. The eight member high-level task force, which is to be formed as per a ministerial level decision taken on Dec 22, has not been able to see the light of day because NA has shied away from naming and sending its three representatives.



The Welfare Fund, which has by now swelled to 18 billion rupees, is allegedly marred by irregularities. For instance, the Office of the Auditor General recently revealed that NA went against the Welfare Fund Regulations – which stipulates that the national army can only spend the interest earned from the Welfare Fund money – and spent 960 million in the last fiscal year though the interest that it received in the same period was just Rs 660 million. Such irregularities, for example, is the reason why the decision to form a task force was taken.



However, as the NA has not cooperated in the formation of the task force even a month after the decision to form it was taken, there is a fear that the body may not be able to fulfill its mandate within the given timeframe. There are suspicions that it is exactly what the national army wants to happen as it fears that a lot of skeletons might tumble out of the cupboard if the decision to form the task force materializes.



Even if that is not really the intention of NA, the fact that it is shying away from the formation of the body only lends credence to the view that irregularities in the fund are rife. It is also profoundly damaging to its well-crafted image of being an honest and a transparent institution. If there are genuine reasons why it is not cooperating, it has to bring them out in the open. Else, it must collaborate in giving shape to the body as soon as possible.



Not doing so is a grave injustice to the army personnel themselves, not least of them being their own men working as international peacekeepers from whose salary a 22 percent deduction is made every month and military observers who too have too to part with 5 percent of their monthly pay while on duty in foreign land.

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