Minister Pokharel presents government’s achievements in parliament

Kathmandu. KATHMANDU: Minister for Education and Sports Sasmit Pokharel has claimed that the incumbent government has carried out remarkable works in the areas of good governance, administrative reforms, corruption control and expansion of digital services in the last one hundred days of its formation.

Presenting the main works and achievements of the government in the meeting of the House of Representatives on Thursday, Minister Pokharel said governance reforms were in priority as per the people’s aspiration.

According to him, the first meeting of the Council of Ministers following the formation of the government has endorsed one hundred agendas of governance reform and regular monitoring was underway by determining timeframe, responsible bodies and performance indicators for each agenda.

Minister Pokharel shared that the national policy formulation and policy test framework has been implemented for the formulation of policy based on facts and evidence under the policy-level reforms. He said that the number of federal ministries has been limited to 18 and a 17-member Council of Ministers has been formed to reduce administrative expenses.

She said that this will save around Rs 20 billion annually. He expressed the belief that the Public Procurement Act (Second Amendment) Bill has been tabled in the parliament and it would make the procurement process simple, easy and competitive.

Minister Pokharel said that the trade unions of the government bodies were dissolved to free the public administration from political interference. He also informed that a commission has been formed to investigate the illegal assets of high-ranking people and employees.

According to him, more than 11,000 property details and complaints have been collected so far and preliminary analysis has been initiated. He also said that the investigation reports on Nepal Bal Sangathan, Bal Mandir and Ncell share ownership dispute have been implemented.

Minister Pokharel said that the government has issued the National Integrity Policy for promoting good conduct, arrested 666 middlemen and filed cases against 170 people.

According to him, seven cases have been filed for money laundering and anti-financial crimes, 101 individuals and organizations have been made defendants and Rs 118 billion has been claimed.

According to him, revenue of Rs 13.26 crore has been returned from the professors of Tribhuvan University who did not return on study leave while arrears of Rs 43.48 crore have been recovered from the industrial sector.

According to him, the online system for the citizenship has been expanded in all 77 districts in the IT sector, various services have been made available through the Nagarik app and the government’s digital system has been made more systematic.

Minister Pokharel said the government’s 100 days of work was centered on zero tolerance on corruption, austerity, merit-based appointments and digital service delivery.