If the civilian administration outsources the civilian job to NA, what will be the relevance of the civilian administration itself?
Kathmandu, April 3
The government’s decision to outsource the job of procuring personal protective equipment and the gear required to diagnose and treat the coronavirus patients to Nepali Army has drawn condemnation from the stakeholders, including the ruling party’s leaders.
The Department of Health, which was vehemently criticised for awarding the contract to Omni Group to procure medical equipment from China at exorbitant rate, scrapped the deal on April 1 in the face of the criticism.
Nepal Communist Party (NCP) lawmaker Ram Kumari Jhakri questioned on her Facebook post if the civil authorities had lost credibility while the NCP Central Committee member Bishnu Rijal wrote in his twitter post urging the government to look for a long term solution of an issue rather than relying on Nepali Army for every other task that doesn’t materialise on the first-go.
Baburam Bhattarai, co-chair of Samajwadi Party-Nepal on Thursday expressed suspicion over the government’s move to hand over the task to Nepali Army. He tweeted, “Guns and bullets probably won’t kill the virus!
Why has the government passed the responsibility to the army when civil entities like commerce and supplies should be facilitating it?” What stopped the government from procuring equipment through G2G process earlier? Is it because the CIAA can’t look into this matter?”
Nepali Congress Spokesperson Bishwa Prakash Sharma said the government had the rights to mobilise any state organ to meet the shortfall of medical stuffs at such grim times, but the government should have intensively debated the issue with all Cabinet members and other political parties before deciding to outsource the procurement job to Nepali Army, bypassing the designated civil authorities. “Our present priority should be to ensure supply of adequate medical equipment, but at the same time the government should make effort to avoid a situation where people start doubting its intention and acts,” he added.
Political scientist Krishna Pokharel said the government appeared to have taken the decision to involve NA in the procumbent deal mainly with the intent of avoiding oversight by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority as the anti-graft body can not investigate corruption in the NA.
NA’s role can be accepted to the extent that it is confined to rescue and rehabilitation work as was the case in the aftermath of 2015 earthquakes and Bara/Parsa tornado.
“There are several government agencies, including ministries, that can be roped into procuring medical equipment in these grim times. If the civilian administration outsources the civilian job to NA, what will be the relevance of the civilian administration itself?” he wondered.
Executive Director of Freedom Forum Taranth Dahal said the government, which was slammed for unscrupulous deal with Omni Group, decided to outsource the job of procurement to NA mainly to deprive the CIAA from its oversight role and consequently to deflect blame of corruption and irregularities.
“NA’s deals are not as transparent as those of civilian agencies.
Parliamentary panels can look into NA’s procurement deals, but often we do not see serious debates in the panel particularly in those matters where NA is involved,” he said. Not ensuring transparency means there cannot be accountability and responsibility, he argued.
If the civilian administration outsources the civilian job to NA, what will be the relevance of the civilian administration itself?
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