Top panel tells govt to bar officials from I/NGOs sponsored junkets

KATHMANDU, July 29: A high-level committee has recommended the government to bar all government officials, including ministers and other public office bearers, from going on I/NGOs sponsored foreign junkets.
In a report submitted by the high-level committee formed to recommend suggestions for regulating foreign visits by government officials to chief secretary on Tuesday, it has suggested that the government should ban government officials, ministers and other public office bearers, including lawmakers, from making foreign trips sponsored by national and international non-government
organizations.

The committee in its report has noted that though government officials and ministers going abroad with sponsorship from various non-government organizations claimed traveling and daily allowances and other allowances from the government as well.

“So, we have recommended that government ban all kinds of sponsored foreign visits by public office bearers,” said Prem Rai, secretary of the Prime Minister's Office and a member of the committee.

A growing trend of foreign visits by government officials and other public office bearers spending a hefty amount from the state coffers prompted Chief Secretary Leela Mani Paudyal in March formed the high-level committee comprising of secretary of Finance Ministry, Suman Prasad Sharma, secretary of Defense Ministry, Ishwori Prasad Poudel, Foreign ministry secretary, Shankar Dash Bhairagi, Prime Minister's office secretary, Prem Rai, and joint-secretary, Ghanashayam Updahaya, and the chief of auditor's general office. The committee prepared the report after four months of homework.

The committee has also suggested that public office bearers should compulsorily submit a detailed reports to concerned authorities soon after returning from any kind of foreign visits.

Secretary Rai said that the committee has recommended inclusion of not more than 22 individuals in the delegation during foreign the visits of president, vice president and prime minster so as to avoid unnecessary expenses during such trips.

The committee stated that public office bearers have been making foreign visits without consulting Foreign Ministry. “Many government officials, including ministers, travel abroad without approval from the cabinet and without clarifying the significance of any foreign visit,” said Rai.

The 34-page long report also suggests Nepali embassies abroad to be economic while organizing parties.