The findings of the study, which National Planning Commission (NPC) started last year and received its more than three months ago, had revealed at least 20 percent leakage in the state-funded program, which gobbled up Rs 7.6 billion - that is 2.4 percent of the total budget - in 2010/11. [break]
“Its findings suggest some Rs 2 billion worth of taxpayers´ money went off-target last year alone. Unless corrections are made, more fund will continue to find its way into the pockets of unscrupulous local body officials and miscreants in the years ahead,” stated a senior Ministry of Finance (MoF) official.
Top NPC officials too had acknowledged the risks when the NPC made public its finding more than a month ago. They vowed to take prompt corrective actions as well.
But even after the three months of receiving the report, the government has not yet taken any action to plug holes.
“We have not taken any step to this connection yet. Hopefully, the government will realize its seriousness and give us a clear direction on how to proceed,” said NPC Vice Chairman Deependra Bahadur Kshetry.
The independent assessment team had generated the report after studying operations of four different social security allowance schemes that targeted senior citizens, single women, senior citizens (dalit) and the disabled in about a dozen districts, disclosing a number of weaknesses and aberrations.
It had identified presence of a large number of ´ghost names´ in the lists of beneficiaries, multiple entries of the same beneficiary and name of the people living in the bordering Indian towns as three major causes behind the seepage.
For instance, the study says in just one Talla Devi VDC of Baitadi district, around 13 percent ghost names are receiving the allowance. According to the report, there were 300 listed beneficiaries in the VDC, but 40 of those names were fake.
Likewise, in Dhaibung VDC of Rasuwa, the name of one beneficiary was found in three places on the same sheet, and the allowance was distributed under each of the multiple entries. In multiple VDCs, such as Bahun Dandi of Jhapa, the study team found names of beneficiaries who lived in India. Those beneficiaries were regularly visiting the VDC to collect their allowance at the time of its distribution.
That is not all, the study found the records of beneficiaries not being updated promptly or in an authentic fashion. The lists continued to include beneficiaries who were already dead, and their allowances were still being paid out.
Also names of people who migrated to other locations had not been removed from the list in areas they once lived.
Referring to these findings, the report has blamed the leakage to the failure of the government and local bodies to promptly update records, lack of transparency in its operations and poor monitoring.
As the VDCs were not found making the lists of beneficiaries public, despite it being made mandatory by the Allowance Distribution Manual, the report urges the government to instantly tighten its monitoring, update the beneficiaries lists more often and ensure transparency in the program.
“Fundamentally, the report has urged for transparency in operations of the allowance, making local bodies accountable and putting in place a cross-check mechanism for ensuring authenticity of beneficiaries names, apart from timely updating of lists,” said Kshetry.
Officials said such corrections can easily be made as well. “Only thing needed to attain this is political will and priority. But sadly, this very will is missing. Perhaps the government does not want to muddle with the voters on this politically sensitive program at this juncture,” said the MoF source.
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