KATHMANDU, May 28: The Ministry of Finance (MoF) accounted for the largest amount of arrears among the government ministries during the last fiscal year.
According to the 61st annual report of the Office of the Auditor General (OAG), the ministry authorized for maintaining financial discipline in the economy is holding the largest amount of non-transparent financial transactions.
Out of the total arrears of Rs 46.53 billion of the federal government’s ministries last year, the MoF accounted for Rs 25.47 billion (54.74 percent). Of the amount, Rs 3.55 billion is identified as the amount to recover, while Rs 21.92 billion is needed to be regularized.
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In the fiscal year 2021/22 too, the MoF with arrears of Rs 32.46 billion, topped in the segment. It made around 58 percent of the total arrears of the federal government offices that stood at Rs 56.31 billion.
In addition, the OAG also questioned the MoF and its related offices for not recovering revenue dues, and principal amount and interests of the loans provided to various government entities worth Rs 415.03 billion.
The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport stood second among the ministries having the highest amount of arrears. The ministry’s arrears stood at Rs 12 billion, up from Rs 8.79 billion in the previous fiscal year.
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology had arrears of Rs 3.12 billion compared to Rs 2.70 billion a year ago. Likewise, the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation conducted non-transparent transactions worth Rs 1.01 billion.
Any financial transaction carried out without providing the required documents and fulfilling the processes is listed under arrears. A large amount of arrears hints at higher possibilities of corruption in the government bodies concerned.
In the fiscal year 2022/23, the government’s arrears increased by Rs 95.60 billion, while taking the total arrears in the state mechanism to Rs 669 billion as of now. The OAG report shows that the arrears increased by 16.28 percent last year.
Of the total amount of arrears added last year, Rs 46.54 billion was with the institutions of the federal government, Rs 6.57 billion with provincial governments and Rs 31.02 billion with the local governments.
