The Finance Ministry issued a statement Tuesday saying a meeting of Finance Minister Surendra Pandey, Minister Kushwaha and Vice-Chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC) Dr Yuvaraj Khatiwada held at the Finance Ministry took the decision and the Education Ministry would write to all the districts to implement it. [break]
The meeting also decided to form a three-member committee under NPC member Dr Tirtha Raj Khaniya to investigate irregularities in the distribution of relief quotas and other activities that obstructed implementation of the School Sector Reform Plan (SSRP).
The committee has been given 15 days to submit a report which should also offer suggestions for distribution of relief quotas and teachers under the Per Capita Funding (PCF) method and techniques to ensure that such irregularities do not occur again.
The meeting also directed the Education Ministry to make appointments under relief quota and PCF only after the Khaniya committee submits its report.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the Tarai Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP) on Wednesday morning will take a decision over Kushwaha. “We will take a decision on the issue and other current affairs Wednesday morning. I will be able to state the party´s official position only after that,” TMDP General Secretary Hridayesh Tripathi said about his party´s position.
Dr Khaniya, who is currently in Surkhet, said he does not know all the details about the decision but confirmed that no relief quotas were to be distributed in the current fiscal year. “There have definitely been some irregularities and some tinkering has been done with the previous year´s quotas,” Dr Khaniya said.
In the last five years 22,200 primary level, 9,660 lower secondary level and 5,640 secondary level teachers have been appointed under relief quotas.
There should have been no appointments this year as there is no provision for relief quotas in the current fiscal year while the PCF method, that uses number of students to calculate number of teachers, has not come into practice yet.
Donors, who had Monday suspended funding until convincing steps were taken to address rampant corruption in the Education Ministry, welcomed Tuesday´s decision.
“This is a positive step. We (nine pooling donors supporting the SSRP) will meet on Wednesday to discuss the decision and will wait for 15 days till the Khaniya committee submits its report,” Ove Fritz Larsen of the Danish embassy in Kathmandu, which coordinates the international donors, said.
The nine pooling donors--World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Denmark, UNICEF, Norway, DfID, Finland, European Union and AusAid--are to fund US$ 600 million out of the Rs 200 billion for the ambitious six-year SSRP in the first five years (donors cannot commit themselves for more than a five-year period).
Furthermore, the Fast Track Initiative (FTI), funded by a number of donor agencies, has committed an additional US$ 120 million for the next three years while USAID, JICA, UNESCO, the Indian embassy and others are also supporting SSRP from outside the group of pooling donors.
Education Minister Kushwaha is being investigated by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) over financial irregularities in the distribution of relief quotas and was also implicated by the PAC five months ago in irregularities in purchase of printing materials for the state-run Janak Shiksha Samagri Kendra Limited, the sole authority for printing the textbooks of government schools.
There have been allegations that Kushwaha sold relief quotas across the country from Kathmandu, charging anything from Rs 100,000 to Rs 300,000 for each quota position.
“We have found that he (Kushwaha) has taken money and rampantly distributed relief quotas especially in districts in the Tarai,” a member of the PAC looking into the relief quota issue said.
The member said that Minister Kushwaha and associates have made as many as seven appointments for one quota in a school and even made appointments in the name of many schools that do not actually exist.
“There has also been an instance where a teacher from Tehrathum district, who bought a quota from the minister, demanding refund as the school appointed another competent teacher locally,” said the PAC member.
The member further said that Kushwaha placed under-secretaries on deputation and appointed section officers as District Education Officers (DEO) in many districts after taking money from them.
“When we called Kushwaha to the PAC for his statement on the corruption charges, he answered ´What would a fish do if not drink water?´” the member said.
He said the sub-committee investigating irregularities in distribution of relief quotas already submitted its interim report to the PAC last month suggesting annulment of appointments made flouting regulations and action against DEOs involved in the appointment procedure.
He, however, said a final decision on taking action against Kushwaha has not yet been taken. Even Tuesday´s decision forming an investigation committee is silent about action against Kushwaha.
premdhakal@myrepublica.com
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