On Thursday, the House of Representatives was supposed to deliberate on the budget allocated for seven ministries. The agenda for the meeting had been finalised in consultations with the chief whips of the ruling parties.

However, once the meeting entered its business, the Speaker announced the deferral of the discussions for four ministries. Deliberations on the budget allocated for the Ministry of Defence; the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation; the Ministry of Health and Population; and the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration didn’t happen as the respective ministers failed to turn up for the meeting.

A similar story repeated the very next day. Speaker Devraj Ghimire had to cancel the deliberations on the budget for the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation; the Ministry of Youth and Population; and the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens as the respective ministers did not appear in the House.

Ghimire announced that the scheduled deliberations concerning the three ministries would be removed from the House agenda after Nepali Congress lawmaker Ram Hari Khatiwada drew the House’s attention to the respective ministers’ absence.

Deliberations on the budgets for the three ministries cannot proceed in the absence of the respective ministers, said Khatiwada.

As the scheduled discussions could not happen on Thursday and Friday, they were pushed to Saturday. The lower house had to discuss the budget for 10 ministries, 45 percent of the total ministries, in a single day.

“The ministers are undermining the House. They are openly flouting the parliamentary rules and practice by ignoring the budget discussion,” Hitraj Pandey, CPN (Maoist Centre) chief whip, said on Thursday.

Not just the opposition lawmakers, even those from the ruling parties came forward to criticise the ministers’ negligence of House proceedings.

“Some ministers didn’t show up yesterday [Friday] or the day before [Thursday]. As a result, we are discussing the budget of 10 ministries today [Saturday]. I would like to ask our ministers what could be more important than attending the ongoing discussions on appropriation bills in Parliament? What compelled you to be elsewhere instead of here? This is a very serious question,” said CPN-UML lawmaker Yogesh Bhattarai while participating in the deliberations on Saturday.

In parliamentary democracy, the government—the prime minister and the ministers—is accountable and answerable to Parliament. As the respective ministers need to answer the questions raised during the budget deliberations, their presence is necessary on the day the respective ministries’ budget is discussed. However, either the ministers remain absent on the scheduled day of discussion or arrive late.

The lower house meeting, called for 11 am on Saturday, was delayed by an hour as most of the ministers failed to arrive on time. “What exactly are our ministers supposed to do if they can’t make time for a budget discussion? This is a serious matter of [lack of] accountability,” said Bhattarai.

Experts on parliamentary affairs say the absenteeism of ministers in Parliament, even during budget deliberations, shows their lack of accountability towards the House and also that budget deliberation has become mere ritual.

“Even lawmakers do not actively participate in budget discussions because they are ritualistic,” said Som Bahadur Thapa, former secretary at the Parliament Secretariat.

The House is often empty during budget deliberations, Thapa says. Lawmakers typically attend only to mark their presence, stay until their turn to speak, and then leave. As per parliamentary regulations, any bill, including those related to the budget, can be put to a vote only when at least 25 percent of the members are present.

However, there is no such rule for deliberations, which is why the lawmakers often tend to skip meetings after marking their presence, according to officials at the secretariat.