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Govt security policy in limbo
- No budget, says Finance Ministry
KATHMANDU, NOV 05 - The fate of the recently introduced Special Security Plan hangs in the balance. The Finance Ministry is yet to release the budget for the plan already effective in 10 eastern hill districts and 188 police bases in the Tarai since July.
The Home Ministry plans to fully implement the security plan worth Rs. 3.8 billion in the current fiscal year. The plan proposes to recruit additional personnel in Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and the National Investigation Department and purchase vehicles, communication equipment and other logistics.
However, the plan, to be carried out through non-budgetary allocation, seems to have got “stuck” due to budget crunch. Finance Minister Surendra Pandey told the Post on Thursday that the government is not in a position to immediately release funds as it is facing economic crisis due to delay in passing the budget.
“We can provide the fund if there is budget stock or if we can collect more revenue, otherwise it will be difficult,” said Minister Pandey. He said there is huge pre-ssure on the government to provide funds for non-budgeted programmes such as salary hike of civil servants and the school sector reform programme, which have increased expenditures to Rs. 7.2 billion and Rs. 9 billion respectively. “We might have to bring in a complementary budget,” he said.
As part of the plan, the Home Ministry has completed awareness campaign and the Armed Police Force (APF) has initiated recruitment of 5,481 additional personnel. Home Ministry Spokesperson Jaya Mukunda Khanal said those programmes are being implemented from the regular budget of the Home Ministry. “We have repeatedly asked the Finance Ministry to release the budget for the plan but we are yet to receive money,” said Khanal.
In the plan, Rs. 2.46 billion has been allocated to recruit 11,388 APF personnel. The APF has already proceeded with recruitment of around 2,800 personnel from the regular budget of the Home Ministry. “The APF has taken Rs. 160 million to proceed with first-phase recruitment, but due to delay in budget release, we don’t know how the amount will be reimbursed,” said the source. The plan has also allocated Rs. 706 million to purchase vehicles and other equipment. The release of the first three-month installment of this budget is also due.
The plan has allocated Rs. 142.1 million for Nepal Police and Rs. 451.9 million for National Investigation Department to purchase logistics. It has reco-mmended recruitment of 10,001 police personnel, but no budget has been allocated under the topic.
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