According to a Cabinet source, the PM has effectively cancelled all the paperwork with immediate effect.

In a Cabinet meeting on Friday, the PM ordered the cancellation of the process in line with the directives from three parliamentary panels, including the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

A minister told the Post that the PM’s decision follows the controversies reflected in the media, parliamentary panels and within the Cabinet. The council of ministers was also divided over the issue.

With the directive, the proposal is withheld at least until another decision. The Cabinet subcommittee on Economic and Infrastructure will conduct a study whether there is a need to contract the visa process to a private firm, what implications such a move will have on national security, and what measures can be taken if it is inevitable to get a foreign company to do the job.

National Planning Commission Vice-chairman Govinda Raj Pokhrel and secretaries from the ministries of Home, Finance, Tourism and Physical Infrastructure are on the panel.

The PAC on Thursday directed the government to stop its controversial move to outsource visa processing to a private firm. A meeting of the committee also decided to investigate the preparations made by the government by collecting related documents.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Bam Dev Gautam told the Cabinet that the ministry came up with the proposal as “our Immigration officials are not trained to handle the visa system online”.

“Some of them don’t understand English, others can’t speak it. Some can’t operate a computer. There are few capable people in the department,” he told journalists close to his party CPN-UML in the Capital on Friday.

He criticised the media saying that they had carried baseless reports. “Malicious pieces were published claiming that the entire visa procedure is being handed over to foreigners, our secrecy will be in jeopardy and huge funds are being misappropriated,” Gautam charged.

At the Cabinet meeting on Friday, he said that the contractor would install the software and train the human resource for a specified period. “Once our officials are able to handle the job, we will end the contract,” he added.

But the prime minister was not convinced about the move and some ministers from Nepali Congress wanted the process halted immediately, according to a minister.

DPM Gautam had come down heavily on the Prime Minister’s Office for “leaking the information to the media”.

Sources said the proposal had landed in the Cabinet three months ago. The initial proposal to contract visa processing to a foreign firm under the build, operate and transfer model after negotiating the terms was approved by the Finance Ministry.

The paper was revised to change several provisions after rounds of discussions, sources said.