Misuse of state vehicles is not something new. Irrespective of whichever party is in the government, the ministers and leaders have exploited every available option to misuse state’s resources that includes vehicles, among other things. The parties in government seem to think that misusing state resources is not a big deal since every other government has done so in the past or will do so in the feature. This is just the kind of attitude that perpetuates shameless misuse of public resources. But this government seems to be going an extra mile in this direction. Only a few weeks ago, the government had proposed to provide vehicles to the top leaders of all 25 parties in the Constituent Assembly.
As the leader of the government, Prime Madhav Kumar Nepal has the main responsibility to rein in any kind of misuse of state property and tax payer’s money. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Nepal himself doesn’t seem to have any firm stance against such misuse. He himself has generously distributed cash hand-out to the ‘needy’—a euphemism for those who have access to Baluwatar and enjoy connection with people around the prime minister. Having exhausted all the money allotted for a year to be spent under the prime minister’s discretion, the prime minister has sought additional funds. When the guardian of the cabinet has such a lax attitude toward misuse of state resources, no wonder that the ministers and others are misusing it without any sense of remorse. Prime Minister Nepal cannot take an excuse of leading an unstable coalition government of so many parties to justify the misuse of state resources and abuse of authority. Ethical values are meant to be defended even more vigorously during hard times.
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