NCP lawmaker Akkal Rawal accuses Sudurpaschim government of trying to control budget probe

Dhangadhi: Akkal Rawal, a lawmaker from the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), has strongly objected to what he described as the government’s attempt to backtrack on its decision to conduct a parliamentary investigation into the Sudurpaschim Province budget.

Rawal accused the government of attempting to manipulate the composition of the investigative committee to serve its own interests. He said it was farcical for a government that had effectively acknowledged budget irregularities by agreeing to introduce a supplementary budget following an investigation to now seek to form the committee itself.

He clarified that the authority to investigate the government’s budget rests with the Provincial Assembly, not the government. “A government that is ‘ailing’ cannot treat itself. If the government becomes incapacitated, it is the House that must provide the treatment,” Rawal wrote on social media.

According to Rawal, the provincial cabinet and Minister for Economic Affairs Chakra Malla had committed during a Provincial Assembly session to conducting a parliamentary investigation into the budget and introducing a supplementary budget based on the findings. He argued that since the Speaker had already formally taken ownership of the matter on behalf of the House, any attempt by the government to keep the investigative process under its control was fundamentally wrong.

Rawal sarcastically remarked that an attempt had been made to select members of the investigative committee through a meeting at the Chief Minister’s Office. He said the meeting was attended not by the ruling party as a whole but by a select group of those in power.

He argued that the government’s attempt to handpick committee members, rather than consult all political parties through a process led by the Speaker, had raised questions about the impartiality of the investigation.

“It appears there was an in-depth discussion on whom to appoint in order to ‘purify’ the budget—as if by bathing it in milk and sprinkling it with cow urine,” he wrote. “An attempt is underway to ‘wash away the sins’ of the existing budget by forming a committee to give it a ceremonial cleansing. This is absolutely unacceptable.”

Pointing out that the government itself had already acknowledged irregularities in the budget, Rawal warned against attempts to legitimize the existing budget merely by going through the motions of an investigation.

He demanded that the committee include representatives from all political parties, operate under the ownership of the Provincial Assembly, and ensure an impartial investigation.

Addressing Chief Minister Khagaraj Bhatta, Rawal urged him to bridge the gap between his rhetoric on “good governance” and his actual conduct. He also warned against turning the Provincial Assembly’s decision, reached in the absence of an opposition, into another source of controversy. That decision had been contingent on a commitment to introduce a supplementary budget following an investigation.