Bill on former digintaries extravagent: House Panel

The sub-committee has recommended that the vehicle, fuel, driver and security facilities should be provided only to former president, former vice-president, former prime minister, former speaker of the parliament and former chief judges.

KATHMANDU, June 13: A sub-committee formed by Parliament's Good Governance and Monitoring Committee to study facilities provided to the former dignitaries has found a bill prepared by the government to provide perks and facilities to the former dignitaries 'inappropriate and extravagant.'

The sub-committee on Sunday suggested to the full-committee to direct the ministry of home affairs not to move forward the bill to parliament as the bill proposes a more extravagant facilities to the former dignitaries, who are already misusing facilities provided by the government.

"At a time when former dignitaries are already misusing facilities provided to them, the home ministry has prepared a bill proposing additional perks and facilities to them. So, we have asked the full-committee to direct the government not to proceed with the bill for the time being as it is inappropriate and extravagant," lawmaker Janak Raj Joshi, coordinator of the sub-committee, said.

He said that the bill was inappropriate as it does not clearly indicate what could be the criteria to identify former dignitaries. "The loopholes in the bill can further promote the culture of misusing facilities given to the former dignitaries from the state coffers," he added.

He said that the bill proposes providing residence facility, monthly allowances, vehicles, drivers, fuel and maintenance costs, personal secretariat employees and security personnel to all the former dignitaries. "Such extravagant facilities will place a huge financial burden on state coffers. So, these provisions need to be removed from the draft itself," he said.

The sub-committee has recommended that the vehicle, fuel, driver and security facilities should be provided only to former president, former vice-president, former prime minister, former speaker of the parliament and former chief judges.

Lately, the former chairman of the Constituent Assembly, former deputy prime ministers, former home ministers, former ministers, former chief justices, former IGPs, former royalty, former Nepal Army chiefs, former chief secretaries and former members of parliament have been seeking various other facilities from the government, such as residences, vehicles, drivers, fuel and maintenance costs and housekeeping staff.

A study report submitted by the same sub-committee last week had estimated that that over Rs 4 million each was being spent on average every year on the former dignitaries, including the former president and former vice-president and the former prime ministers. The sub-committee had also found that former dignitaries, including former prime ministers, have been using up to 64 security personnel for their personal security even though such large numbers are not necessary.

More than 7,000 security personnel have been deployed alone for the security of the former dignitaries. As many as 15 former home ministers were found to have been using up to 10 security personnel each for their conveniences as part of the special facilities provided to them by the government, according to the sub-committee.

"So, we have also recommended to the full-committee that former home ministers should not be provided special facilities and that all the former ministers including home ministers should be provided equal facilities," Joshi said.

Two weeks ago, the ministry of home affairs had forwarded the bill to the parliament for registration. "The parliamentary committee has shown concern on some of the provisions of the bill. We will review the bill as per the recommendations of the committee," Yadav Prasad Koirala, spokesperson of the ministry, said.

Meanwhile, the sub-committee has suggested the full-committee to direct the government to lower the number of security personnel deployed in protection of former royal families. As many as 155 security personnel have been deployed for the security of former royalty.