Editorial»
Give me a brake
NOV 19 - The abuse of government property by the occupants of public office is not a new phenomenon in Nepal. While in office, the ministers and other high-office bearers are provided with facilities such as vehicles, living quarters and security personnel to help them carry out their daily duties efficiently. But what is seen is that these office bearers tend to extract more than optimal services from the state. One glaring example of this trend is the misuse of expensive vehicles by ministers and high-ranking civil servants.
Furthermore, it has been found that former and current ministers bring to use vehicles set aside for various projects or for the use of particular government departments. Not only ministers, even influential members of big parties use government vehicles for private purposes. Most of the vehicles they bring into use fetch for around Rs. 8 million. Top officials put pressure on their respective ministries or on Home Ministry, the agency responsible for procuring the vehicles for ministers, to supply them with the most expensive and luxurious brands of cars and jeeps. Amazingly, when they leave office, they tend to take the vehicles along, thus making the new crop of public office holders buy anew. What is even more amazing is that the government meets the fuel and driver costs of ex-office bearers and top political leaders.
In India, all ministers in the central government use the India-made Ambassador cars. Though not the most comfortable and fuel-efficient vehicles, Ambassadors serve a very important purpose: their universal use ensures uniformity across the board. No office bearer can order another, more expensive car, at his discretion. A similar provision is needed in Nepal. The civil servants need not all ride the same brand. If a reasonable ceiling can be placed on the cost of the vehicles they can procure, the unhealthy competition now being witnessed among top government officials to buy the most expensive brands may stop.
Needless to say, it doesn't behove public office bearers of a country with the per capita income of U.S. $470 (Rs. 35,000) to ride cars which a common Nepali can't buy with his life savings. Recently, a minister of state assaulted a chief district officer when the latter could not send a posh vehicle to pick up the minister from the local airport. Nepali politicians, when they assume public office, seem to believe state property is as good as their private property. That everyone from the president and the prime minister down to chiefs of big projects usurp government property for private use is an indication of the systematisation of this unholy culture.
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