Ministers' foreign junkets bleeding national coffer

Ministers' foreign junkets bleeding national coffer
The Himalayan Times, 15-Jun-10
By Bishnu Prasad Aryal

The national coffer may get emptied, but foreign junkets won’t stop.

At least, this is the impression one gets by visits abroad both by the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led cabinet in a year and the visits of the erstwhile Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’-led cabinet in nine months are taken into account.

There are 43 members in the present cabinet while the Maoist-led government comprised 24 ministers. The incumbent ministers visited foreign countries 133 times from May 2009 to April 2010, while ministers in the previous Maoist-led government went on 92 foreign junkets between August 2008 and April 2009.

A record of the Finance Section at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers shows around Rs 4.45 million is spent on salaries for the present 43-member cabinet every month.

The PM receives 306 litres of fuel; a minister gets 207 litres and a state minister is provided 180 litres per month. They take cash in lieu of fuel.

Dhruba Prasad Sharma, secretary at OPMCM, said the expenses for each foreign visit varied according to the size of the team, distance and number of days spent abroad. A minister gets per diem US$ 200 excluding bills for travel, food, treatment and accommodation, said Sharma.

Around Rs 1.2 million was spent on a minor treatment for Deputy Prime Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar in Singapore a few months ago.