Kathmandu, April 25: The United States has begun preparations to close the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), which assists the least developed countries. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was launched to reduce the cost and increase the effectiveness of the US government, has concluded that MCC should be closed.
Government mouthpiece Gorkhapatra Daily claims that although the MCC will be closed, the works under the MCA Nepal Compact will continue.
The DOGE, headed by US President Donald Trump's billionaire co-passenger Elon Musk, sent an email to MCC staff on Wednesday informing them that the program would be shut down, Reuters reported.
According to Reuters, in a meeting held on Wednesday, MCC employees were told that its program would be closed and only a minimum of staff would be kept. Before this decision, the officials of DOGE had come to the MCC office last week and discussed it with the leadership. Despite the MCC leadership's request for its continuation in the discussion, DOGE has begun preparations to close.
"Foreign aid is not the priority of the current administration, so it is necessary to stop MCC's work," DOGE said in the discussion, quoted by MCC's Keh Kim.
Reuters has also noted that despite the closure of all MCC works, the construction of the currently operating transmission line in Nepal will not be stopped. An MCC employee, on the condition of not disclosing his name, said that despite the order to stop all MCC work, transmission lines being built in Nepal and Senegal, a wastewater treatment plant in Mongolia and a school in Ivory Coast would not work. Reuters has also claimed to have seen an email written to employees with instructions to stop working at MCC.
Through MCC, the work of constructing transmission lines and substations and upgrading roads in Nepal has been advanced. A Secretariat named Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Nepal has been established in Nepal to implement the programs under MCC. So far, a contract has been signed for three sub-stations in New Butwal, Nawalparasi West, Ratamate Nuwakot and New Damauli.
MCA Nepal has also signed a contract for an 18-kilometer cross-border transmission line. The preliminary work of repairing the Dhankhola-Lamhi 40 km road has also progressed.
Reuters has written that the employees have been instructed to stop all work under the MCC except for the currently active project, but the Nepal government has not received any official information about it so far, Finance Ministry spokesman Shyam Prasad Bhandari said. "The Ministry has not received any such information about the MCC being stopped or not," he said.