Oli’s ministers withhold disclosure of assets

Even 100 days after the formation of the KP Sharma Oli-led coalition government, the Cabinet members are yet to disclose details of their properties.

Although disclosing details of ministers’ assets is not mandatory, the practice is an effort to hold public office holders accountable and encourage transparency.

During Oli’s previous tenures as prime minister, Cabinet members disclosed details of their properties.

Officials in the Prime Minister’s Office said they had received property declarations from ministers.

However, a PMO official said this administration, like many previous ones, is reluctant to make information about ministers’ property public.

“Soon after the Cabinet decided to disclose details of their properties, the ministers are facing backlash,” the official told the Post on condition of anonymity. “This may be why, despite receiving the property details, the Cabinet has not yet made them public.”

According to the Nepal Gazette published on July 4, 2018, the Prime Minister, Ministers and State Ministers must submit details of their properties to the Prime Minister’s Office and the Council of Ministers. These contact details must be sent to the National Vigilance Center within 2 months. It is an old practice to publish such details.

Section 50 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 2002 also states that persons holding public office must submit their property declaration within 60 days of assuming public office and at the end of each financial year.

“Anyone who enters a public office must, within 60 days from the date of entry into the public office, and anyone who is engaged in a public office on the date of entry into force of this article must, within 60 days from the date of entry into force of this Law: and thereafter, within 60 days from the closing date of each fiscal year, present to the body of authority”, we read in the law .

However, section 50(4) of the same Act also states that property details submitted may be confidential.

Since the Constitution protects a person’s assets, their disclosure depends on personal discretion. Article 28 of the Constitution mentions the right to privacy. “The privacy of any person, his residence, his property, his documents, his data, his correspondence and matters relating to his character are, except by law, inviolable,” the article reads.

Former chief secretary Bimal Koirala recalls that in the past, details of assets shared by ministers were published after the decision of the Council of Ministers.

They are legally required to submit property details to the Prime Minister’s office, but the submitted details are not legally required to be made public. However, the government formed after the Popular Movement of 1990 established a tradition of making them public.

However, Koirala said this tradition was broken when the government was formed under the chairmanship of former chief justice Khilraj Regmi.

“It is the moral responsibility of the prime minister and ministers to be transparent in informing the public about their assets when they come in and out of power,” Koirala told the Post. “But ministers may have been reluctant to do so because questions are being raised about their assets.”

Koirala further said that the Prime Minister and ministers had not recently understood the importance of making property details public. “If such a trend prevails, the country’s governance system will weaken,” he said. “If you talk about good governance on paper but do not demonstrate transparency when you hold public office, it will affect governance itself. »

Krishna Gyawali, former secretary of the Nepalese government, believes that reporting information on the property of ministers should be legally binding because those in power could hide their assets. Gyawali said ministers and people in public positions should disclose their assets when in power and reveal them even when not in office.

“If the public gets to know their assets when and after they come to power, then only the public knows the differences,” Gyawali told the Post.

“When one is in power, there is a tendency to increase property through irregularities and to prevent this from happening, the property details of people in public positions must be made public. The file should be subject to public scrutiny.

Prithvi Subba Gurung, government spokesperson and Minister of Communication and Information, said details would be released soon.

“We were supposed to submit the details within two months of taking office, which we did,” Gurung told the Post. “It will be released soon.”