By Deepak Joshi Pokhrel
A saner mind once said that the root of all evil is abuse of power. This saying is very relevant in the Nepalese context as if it was made for Nepal. Over the past decades, abuse of the country’s highest public offices by officer bearers, their relatives and henchmen has become unimaginably horrific. In plain words, it has become an accepted norm in our society and citizens do not even bother to raise voices against it. The reason is not big. It is very simple. They are mindful of the fact that wrongdoers will easily get away owing to their access to the power echelon. Let’s examine why people have come to the conclusion that abuse of authority has become an accepted norm in our society.
A few months ago, police arrested former speaker of the House of Representatives, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, for his connection with the 9 KG gold scam case. Media report says that he and staff used the high offices of the country’s vice president and speaker of the House of Representatives to run the cross-country gold racket. While this high voltage scam was taking a high toll on the state coffers, our former home minister, Bal Krishna Khand, added to the woes. He abused his authority and mobilized his entire core in the ministry to develop a fake list of Bhutanese refugees to facilitate re-settlement in the foreign country. As if this was not enough, our incumbent Home Minister, Rabi Lamichhane, has allegedly been involved in illegally siphoning away the funds from saving cooperatives. Just last week, the Supreme Court handed down a nine-year jail term and NRS 230 million fine on former managing director, Sunil Paudel, of Nepal Telecom for corruption while procuring the national payment gateway system. On April 19, 2024, the bench convicted Paudel of causing loss to the state coffers and misusing government funds.
The above-mentioned abuse of authority has been reported in the recent past. This pen pusher has not highlighted the abuse of authority by the highest public office bearers of the past. We are all mindful of the fact that we will need volumes if we intend to document abuse of authority by the highest public office bearers leading to high voltage scams and corruption ever since we restored democracy. What is even worrisome is the fact that many culprits have walked away scot-free. And it is anybody’s guess why they are not brought to justice.
Not only abuse of authority, the misuse of government vehicles is also rampant in our society. Many elected representatives, bureaucrats, and public office bearers have been reported for giving their official vehicles to their family members and relatives to run personal and domestic errands. Even during holidays, the government vehicles which are procured for elected representatives, public office bearers and bureaucrats are seen plying on the road by their family members for their personal use. If any concerned citizen dares to raise the question, the families and relatives come up with unacceptable excuses.
When we assess this abuse of authorities by the highest public office bearers, we will find that they have not operated alone and succeeded in realizing their sinister agenda. We also find that there is active involvement and support of a strong network of bureaucrats, security officials, and political patrons. They work in collusion to share the pie exacerbating the criminalization of politics.
Many present politicians, bureaucrats and public officer bearers with even moderate stature have been living a lavish life. They own a multi-storey building in posh areas and several luxurious cars which a common Nepalese cannot even imagine owning. Such a lifestyle is not possible with a legal source of income especially at a time when inflation has skyrocketed. In plain words, their extravagant lifestyle is disproportionate to their legal source of income.
The scholar argues that our politicians, bureaucrats and public officer-bearers lack morality, integrity and ethics. They are guided by the principle that they need to capitalize on their existing position and earn quick money- no matter how it comes. Their only intention is to make hay when the sun shines. When they harbour such intentions, it becomes extremely difficult to control the abuse of authority.
As per the anti-corruption law, no person convicted of corruption can be pardoned, revoked or mediated. The punishment is mandatory, the proceedings of the case can continue even after the cessation of the position or the demise of the accused. But even the laws are manipulated by bureaucrats, public office bearers, and politicians in collision with bigwigs in power making a mockery of the law.
According to the Corruption Perceptions Index 2023, an annual flagship publication of Transparency International, a global anti-corruption group based in Berlin, Nepal was ranked in the 110th position in 2022. Transparency International uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is the most corrupt and 100 is the least corrupt. A score below 50 is considered to have a relatively higher level of corruption in a country, according to the anti-corruption advocacy body.
With an objective to curb corruption resulting from abuse of authority, several anti-graft bodies have been instituted in the past. Exceptionally, even the anti-graft bodies seem to lack commitment and will to curb corruption as a result of abuse of authority. Many anti-corruption experts say that the anti-graft agencies have fallen prey to the design of politicians in power.
In a country where members of any commission or government agency are shared under the political bhagbanda system, the autonomous and accountable agency remains a distant dream. If such bhgabhanda continues to flourish, abuse of authority will certainly go unchecked.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect People’s Review’s editorial stance.
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