INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Kathmandu, February 7
Most of the respondents, who were interviewed by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority during a
study said corruption was endemic at local levels.
They said local level office-bearers and employees did not provide any service without
bribe.
According to the finding of ‘Study on Corruption in Local Levels-2020& published recently by the anti-graft body, 55.3 per cent of
the respondents claimed they either paid or heard about under-the-table money solicited by the responsible officers of the local levels even
as they met all requirements to receive the service.
Similarly, 55.2 per cent respondents said there were problems of
systematic/institutional corruption and 30.3 per cent complained of policy level corruption.
Likewise, 34.1 per cent of respondents held
political leadership (chief/deputy chiefs) responsible for the rampant corruption, 32.9 per cent held employees (non-gazetted third class
officers, office assistants and section officers) responsible, 32.1 per cent found engineers/sub-engineers responsible, 30.4 per cent
attributed it to chief administrative officers, 29 per cent to accountants, 21.6 per cent to intermediaries and 15.9 per cent said
others.
Only 6.7 per cent respondents said that no one was involved in corruption
They indulge in corruption right from formulation to implementation of plans and programmes
Service-seekers are often denied service without bribe.
The key areas of corruption include planning, administration, financial
administration, revenue, civil registration, education, building permit, health, supplies management, environment and women and children,
Alcoholism, family needs, culture of nepotism/favouritism, skyrocketing inflation, lack of education and awareness, erosion of moral values
and power obsession were encouraging the local level office-bearers, employees and others to indulge in corruption.
Though majority of the
respondents claimed corruption was rampant at local levels, only two per cent of them filed complaints with the CIAA seeking legal action
The remaining 98 per cent did not consider filing complaints with the anti-graft body.
At least 58.6 respondents urged the CIAA to adopt
stringent measures to control corruption at local levels
Those who reported the corruption to the CIAA used e-mail, postal service hotline (107) and telephone for that purpose.
A total of 58.6 per
cent of respondents said they were confident about initiating action by the anti-graft body against the corrupts, while 17.5 per cent did
not believe on it capacity to do so
Similarly, 23.9 remained neutral.
As per the report, to control the rampant corruption, CIAA is considering to form a special task force
comprising principal secretary of province, chief district officer and officials from National Vigilance Centre for effective monitoring and
evaluation of the activities carried out by local levels.
The post Local governments mired in corruption, reveals CIAA survey appeared
first on The Himalayan Times.