In the lack of Local Governance Act needed to govern activities of the local level units, the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD) has instructed them to follow working procedures issued in the second week of May for the newly formed local governments.

However, the local units are found taking populist decisions in breach of the procedures, like increasing the allowance for senior citizens and validating the works carried out by “peoples government” run by the Maoists during the insurgency. Following such decisions, the ministry issued a directive asking not to take any decision that would put additional financial burden on the local government and violates the existing legal provisions.

Now, the representatives of the local governments are using the government grants for buying or hiring vehicles for the chief and deputy chief of the respective local level units. The government has released Rs10 million to each of the local governments to manage their operational costs in transition. “A majority of local governments are not doing what they were supposed to but are engaged in taking populist decisions,” Secretary at the ministry Dinesh Thapaliya had told the Post in an interview two weeks ago. 

As the local units continued to use the money in the unproductive sector, the ministry on Sunday issued another directive saying that using the grants meant for development works in unproductive sector is not justifiable. 

Ministry officials say they have asked the local governments to abide by the working procedure until the bill on Local Governance Act—which is currently under consideration in the Legistrure-Parliament—is enacted into a law. 

“They [local governments] are taking arbitrary decisions. When we issue any directive we are blamed for interfering into their jurisdiction,” said a senior official at the ministry, requesting anonymity. The ministry has also raised objection to the Kathmandu Metropolitan City’s decision to fix salaries and use Nepal Bhasa [Newari] as an official language. 

The KMC has allocated over Rs3.2 million a month for the salary of the representatives. As the Language Commission has been formed to decide on the language issue, it is meaningless taking such decisions in haste, the official said. “The ministry wants to caution local units that it would be difficult for them to justify their expenditure when Auditor General’s Office audits,” he added.