Nepal's political class unleash an avalanche of irregularities and corruption 

  By Bihari Krishna Shrestha Humongous sums of irregular expenditure:  Last week, the Office of the Auditor General of Nepal dutifully submitted its annual audit report for the fiscal year 2076/77 to the highest constitutional authority of the country, President Bidya Devi Bhandari that recorded an unrestrained and exponential growth in the quantum of unlawful and unaccounted expenditure, or irregular expenditure, of nation's resources. A leading vernacular daily dubbed it as the "pandemic of irregularities" in its banner headline. While the report recorded an irregularity of a massive sum of nearly 12 billion rupees just the last fiscal year, what has been even more alarming is that such unlawful unaccounted spending by the government has over the years piled up to a humongous total of Rs. 676.41 billion. As per the constitutional and relevant legal procedures, the parliament of the country, i.e. the supreme law-making body of the elected representatives would prevail over the erring executive branch of the government and have the unauthorized and embezzled sum that essentially belongs to the people repaid to the national exchequer along with punitive charges for misusing the public money in violation of the law. But that has never happened in Nepal, and this tells a lot about what kind of politicians constitute this supreme law-making body. Federalization and countrywide corruption:   The AG's report also records a mounting and unrestrained rise in the corruption of local bodies and of the provincial governments too. For instance, while the report for 2075 had already recorded a whopping 24 billion rupees in irregular expenditure by the local bodies, the sum has since ballooned to 38 billion the next year and 41 billion in 2076/77. Similarly, the provincial offices too had accumulated a total sum of 19 crore rupees in unlawful expenditure in 2075, that sum has since jumped up to Rs. 8.20 billion in the succeeding year. In 2076/77 alone such irregularity stood at 6.5 billion rupees. Nepal's federalization project clearly has managed to spread and sustain corruption all across the country. People's representatives colluding with the corrupt under democratic framework: As suggested above, this vast sum of irregularities has been building over the years of Westminster democracy in Nepal, not only in plain sight of the elected officials but also aided and abetted by these blatantly corrupt and very same politicians, nearly one and all. While the textbooks on democracy applaud its virtues of transparency and accountability, it is those very crucial qualities that have been missing in Nepal's democracy since day one of the restoration of the multiparty democracy in 1989.  Forget about the high standards of rule of law in advanced democratic countries, just today (August 24), Indonesia reported the jailing of its former health minister for 12 years for the corruption committed in Covid-19 purchases. Compare that with our own former health minister Bhanubhakta Dhakal who presided over the now-infamous Covid-purchase related corruption scandal, now known as the OMNI scam. While the case was then registered with the CIAA, the anti-corruption watchdog, Dhakal himself was moved on to another lucrative ministry, the tourism ministry before the Oli government fell recently. We must also recall at this point the height of impunity the then PM Oli himself had demonstrated when he had come to Dhakal's defense by loudly daring that "there has been no corruption in Covid purchase because I said so." All such sums of misappropriation and embezzlements for the most part are what constitutes the ever ballooning sum of 600 billion plus rupees of so-called "irregularities".  Our kind of democratic politicians could not care less: In even moderately functioning democracies such as Indonesia -- which was rated as "flawed democracy" by Economist Intelligence Unit in 2019 but where, as mentioned above, the health minister has been jailed for 12 years for corruption -- such corrupt practice in managing public finance as seen in the AG's report would have resulted in the total collapse of the government or maybe, even the very dispensation too. But in our kind of "federal republic", no politician cares. The President does not care because there should have been a serious word of concern from her. The prime minister nor the finance minister, nor our party-sanctified, sycophantic, "economic planners" have pronounced a word of alarm at such fiscal cancer that has metastasized the whole body politic of the Nepalese nation. Battle of the corrupt titans:  Currently, the biggest show in town is the battle of the corrupt political titans. NCP-UML chair Oli --who, as per the media reports, stands accused of some of the biggest scams such as widebody aircraft, Yeti Holdings, etc. implying billions in kickbacks in the country's history -- had to lately yield his prime ministerial mantle to another media-incriminated corrupt titan, NC president Sher Bahadur Deuba who is alleged to have bartered just every single appointment and election tickets for cash. This transfer of power has been occasioned by the greed of the third corrupt, former PM Madhav Kumar Nepal who stands accused of Lalita Niwas land scam, who, as a senior leader in UML, wanted president Oli to run the party according to bidhi or proper procedure. But PM Oli himself understood it to be just a metaphor for the corrupt practice of bhagbanda or sharing in the spoils of governing. Nepal and his faction wanted to have a say in all major appointments and awards of contracts by the government from which their own share of kickbacks could be generated.  For one thing, Oli fought and won the last election on the strength of the catchy slogan of loktantrako adhaar: sushashan ra samridhi ka lagi baampanthi sarkar!  (democracy will be anchored to good governance and prosperity under the left government). But from day one of his new tenure, he first concentrated all powers onto himself and thereafter, went about unleashing an unprecedented spate of corruption than one Twitter writer counted up to 39. While all these were happening, the bidhi-wallas in the UML never raised a single voice of dissent. They were in wait for PM Oli to cross the honeymoon threshold of 2 years during which no no-confidence motion can be registered. They then made their move once Oli became vulnerable. The grand conspiracy of unseating Oli from his PM chair itself was orchestrated by another corrupt titan, Prachanda, who has the blood of 18,000 Nepalese slaughtered during their killing spree, erroneously called People's War and also stands accused of having defrauded the national exchequer of billions of rupees in payment of non-existent combatant during the peace process. For both of these perfidies, cases are standing but, on purpose, not acted upon by the puppet hakims responsible for it. Multiparty system and onset of moral degradation: Today, there is a party of relatively educated young politicians, the Bibeksheel Sajha Party that has been appealing for votes on the plank that they are good people and would deliver good governance if elected. The rebuttal to such unsubstantiated claim is that while late Girija Koirala stands accused in history of being the first elected PM to have "institutionalized political corruption", the fact remains that while he was a young rebel himself trying to follow in the footsteps of his brother, BP Koirala, he certainly did not plan on unleashing untold corruption after being elected PM in 1991.  Thus, the Bibeksheel wallas must advance a more credible philosophy and strategic options to convince people that they won't turn into another Girija, Sher Bahadur, Oli, Nepal or Prachanda.  Under Nepal's Westminster version of democracy, the entire political class of the country stands morally degraded, so much so that being corrupt in full view of the people is no longer considered a matter of shame. They have also machinated in such a way that we have anti-corruption watchdogs like CIAA, but they have appointed their own acolytes to lead them to make sure that they would enjoy all the perks and facilities emanating from those positions but would not do their duty that the Constitution of the country demands of them. Moral degradation is everywhere, total and complete. Civil society morally degraded too: Even the so-called civil society sector seems to have been metastasized by this tsunami of moral degradation. Until a few years ago, there were a few individuals educated and professional who stood tall in society for their fearless and independent thinking. That is no longer true. For one thing, each such individual seems to have found solace in aligning with one or more of the above corrupt politicians. Social media is abuzz with allegations of "dollar-motivated" civil society leaders. One such recent character heads a grandly-titled but seemingly one-man movement called Brihad Nagarik Abhiyan whose latest achievement has been to be seated with the corrupt titans like Prachanda and Nepal in Maitihar Mandala square to unseat Oli as PM. Now that it has been accomplished, the Andolan is no longer to be seen or heard. Similarly, there are also organized societies such as Nepal Law Society whose stated objective is to promote "the rule of law, human rights, women empowerment, local governance among others". Occasionally lately, it has even managed to stage a show in which a bunch of former chief justices launched a joint statement against PM Oli's unconstitutional dissolution of parliament.  But one would have hoped such a distinguished set of legal luminaries would concern themselves more with the larger issue of the rottenness of our so-called democratic order. Where do the nation and people go from here?: This dirty political show has been going on since day one of the introduction of the multiparty system in the country. While it is convulsed at regular intervals by various cataclysmic events such as Maoist terrorism or second Jana Andolan, the irony is that the more the political system changes the more it seems to remain the same: corrupt, corrupt and more corrupt. There is no respite for the people. The system will likely improve only when we as a nation find a domestic force that can effectively countervail this corruption-drenched political system.