The controversial Constituency Infrastructure Development Programme is set to be implemented by federal government agencies after years of its implementation through local governments.

After a gap of two years, the government reintroduced the pork barrel fund, formerly known as Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Programme and Constituency Development Fund, with a new name—the Constituency Infrastructure Development Programme.

The scheme has been controversial because of unrestrained power enjoyed by lawmakers in selecting projects and alleged misuse of funds. It was discontinued by the federal government for two years, with the funds diverted to the fight against Covid. Provinces, however, continued their allocations for a similar programme.

Amid intense pressure from federal lawmakers, the government was forced to reintroduce the programme allocating Rs50 million for each of the 165 constituencies. This year’s budget has set aside a total of Rs8.25 billion for the programme.

Under this scheme, a minimum of Rs10 million will be allocated to each project across various sectors, which include road construction, irrigation, water supply, education, health, tourism, and sports.

But the programme’s implementation modality is likely to be different from the past with the government looking to implement it through federal ministries.

The budget implementation guidelines say this programme would be implemented by federal ministries.

“There is a high probability that this programme will now be implemented through federal ministries as announcement has been made through budget implementation guidelines,” said Dhaniram Sharma, the finance ministry spokesman. “But as its working procedure has yet to be finalised, I can’t confirm the implementation modality.”

According to him, there is a plan to finalise the working procedure by mid-August.

Officials at the finance ministry told the Post that the government sought to implement the programme through federal ministries as requested by lawmakers, who reportedly accused local governments of failing to take ownership of the projects implemented under the Constituency Infrastructure Development Programme.

However, Ram Nath Adhikari, a Nepali Congress lawmaker from Dhading constituency 2 who had advocated the programme’s reintroduction, said it does not matter whether the federal or local government implements the programme.

With the federal government aiming to implement the programme through relevant ministries, the budget for the programme has not been sent to the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration, which is the intermediary between local governments and the central government. In the past, the federal government would send the budget for the programme to local governments through the federal affairs ministry.

“No budget has been allocated to us to implement the Constituency Infrastructure Development Programme,” said Kamal Prasad Bhattarai, spokesman at the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration. In the past, this ministry used to prepare the working procedure for the implementation of the programme.

According to the finance ministry, it has the budget for the programme and once the implementing agencies are finalised, the money will be sent to them.

But the plan to implement the programme through the federal government has not gone down well with the local governments and federal government officials.

Since the country has adopted a federal system and local governments were also elected in 2017 following the promulgation of the new constitution, questions are being asked whether the country needs programmes like the Constituency Infrastructure Development Programme.

In the past, when there were no elected representatives at the local level for several years owing to the Maoist insurgency, lawmakers had argued that such a programme was essential in order to connect people with their representatives in parliament. Critics of the programme say lawmakers can no longer use that argument as the country has already adopted a federal system.

Krishna Prasad Sapkota, vice-president of the Municipal Association of Nepal, a grouping of the country’s municipalities, said that local governments were against the programme’s continuation given that the country now has highly empowered local governments. “This programme has no meaning in the federal setup. The federal government could increase the budget of local governments to implement important projects locally,” said Sapokta.

He also criticised the federal government’s plan to implement the programme through federal ministries, saying that such a modality would be ineffective. “Local governments are also capable of implementing the projects to be funded under the Constituency Infrastructure Development Programme, also because they are better-placed to monitor progress in such projects.”

The programme has been criticised as lawmakers often select projects to serve their vested interest.

A special audit conducted by the Office of the Auditor-General in the fiscal year 2016-17 found that projects involving political parties and their sister organisations as well as non-governmental organisations close to the parties were selected, violating the working procedure at the time. Besides concerns over misuse of funds, officials at the finance ministry are also worried about how the federal ministries would implement the projects selected under the programme. “We are concerned about how the ministries that don’t have spending units at the local level would implement the projects under the programme,” said Sharma, spokesman at the ministry.