| antiCorruption |
Posted
on 11-May-02 10:22 PM
Yet another news on irregularities by our honorable ministers. This time it is our acting PM Mr. Chiranjibi Wagle.
God bless Mr. Wagle and Nepal.
(Source: Kantipuronline)
ADB halts selection of road consultant
KATHMANDU, May 12 - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has written to the Department of Roads (DoR) to halt the evaluation process of selecting consultant for a road project worth 69.5 million US dollars, citing irregularities in the process.
The letter, dated May 2, was written by Tadashi Kondo, Director of Infrastructure Division, South Asia Department and addressed to Madan Gopal Maleku, the Director General at the DoR has sought clarification on the controversy.
The controversy arose when M/s Louis Berger and Co. was selected at the alleged connivance of Devendra Wagle and Dinesh Prasad, the local representative of Louis Berger and some DoR officials. Wagle is the son of Chiranjivi Wagle, the Minister for Physical Planning and Works, the ministry controlling the Department of Roads.
According to a senior engineer at the DoR, Wagle junior and Prasad allegedly manipulated the formulation of the evaluation criteria, succeeding in getting the award of the Road Network Development Project (RNDP) for Louis Berger. After the irregularities came to the fore, both the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) stepped in and they are currently investigating the matter.
PAC has already written to the ministry to take a decision on awarding the contract in a fair and impartial manner and inform them of the developments. (yo)
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| Paschim |
Posted
on 12-May-02 11:41 AM
Having followed this case since it erupted, it is with pleasure that I note how silently but effectively channels of accountability seek to work even in an imperfect democracy. First, that a concessional loan offer was made to Nepal by the ADB for crucial infrastructure projects was covered in the free press, so people knew about it. Those more interested in it knew the project involved a component requiring of hiring of consultants, as the document describing this was publicly available. People followed closely as to how that selection was being made. Once rigging was suspected, it was reported in the media. General outcry propelled a parliamentary committee to summon the concerned minister, Mr. Wagle, to brief lawmakers on what exactly was going on. A private citizen, disgusted with Wagle’s record on financial impropriety also filed a separate writ at the anti-corruption body, the CIAA, singling the Minister’s son, Devendra, for foul play. Because two highly important constitutional institutions – a parliamentary committee and the CIAA – sprung into action, and because credible broadsheets like Kantipur followed the story, the ADB, the donor, also started its internal investigation over abuse of its money, requesting for relevant files from the Department of Roads. Not pleased with the way things were said to have been done, it has requested the government to now halt the selection process. Investigation results from CIAA are also being awaited.
To me this is a process deeply worth appreciating. The investigation will take its own course and Mr. Wagle and company should be issued due justice according to the laws of our land that may range from a rebuke from CIAA to imprisonment. In the past, our institutions have failed to successfully prosecute and convict corrupt politicians. Reason was often either insufficient legal authority or investigative capacity. But by approving 4 anti-corruption bills in the last session of the House alone, and taking steps to grant CIAA sweeping authority, silently but slowly, our democracy is being responsive. It’s slow and not deep enough, but all institutionalization efforts take time. But once they do, they start delivering for generations, unlike the whimsical kangaroo court based arbitrary justice systems in authoritarian regimes. In the current climate of pervasive pessimism about vice in public life, and democracy as a system, we really should appreciate these small, silent achievements.
Institutionalized corruption is not new in Nepal. It began with King Mahendra’s need to financially strengthen his impoverished Durbar after 2024 BS. Because it was done at the highest of levels and there was no media except the state-run Radio Nepal and Gorkhapatra to report all this, not many knew. And you couldn’t exactly call god-kings corrupt. But corruption patronized by the Durbar was no secret which continued well into the 80s, getting particularly worse after the plebiscite of 1980 with the growth of the Panchayat bureaucracy when corruption seeped into the system at large becoming corrosive. The plum ‘rent-seeking’ opportunities, like buying planes for RNAC, were all of course monopolized by Raj-durbar, but of course we didn’t know all this because we didn’t have a democracy.
I tend to agree that corruption at high levels has gotten worse after 1990, but as a share of our GDP, I don’t think the ratio has changed much since the latter days of the Panchayat. Then it was concentrated and unpublicized, these days it is decentralized and publicized, thanks to the channels of accountability that a democracy permits, incl. open media. It is thus quite ironical that the very system that is making us aware of these irregularities that incidentally have long existed in Nepal have disgusted most of us of the very system which we believe wrongly is the cause. It’s not.
The channels that got activated in this case involving Wagle are exactly the kind of processes we should be strengthening if we want to rid and deter corruption in Nepal, not being swayed to behead the poorest farmer in Salyan or hang a helpless teacher in Lamjung, because there is corruption in Kathmandu, as that stupid Maoist was trying to justify by posting "why we need revolution” in other threads. We know all that. The debate is over solutions and tactics. And the best tactic remains what democracy and rule of law allow – media, legal institutions, citizenship, parliaments, etc. There are many loopholes in the process, and it is quite likely that influential ministers like Wagle will look at how they can make use of them. But with citizen vigilance and activism that democracy permits, we’ll get them. We will get most of them eventually. The process of making democracy functional is tiring, slow, annoying, boring, risky, but this is the only correct path to follow if we want due processes to make public life cleaner and more honorable while respecting the rights of citizens. Including criminals and terrorists.
Paschim
A silent admirer of small feats in developing democracies and an eternal optimist!
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