Minister takes right step

The Himalayan Times

22 March 2018

Minister takes right step

The Oli led government has been expanded for the third time. Nevertheless, the government is yet to take its full shape. It was widely expected that the Federal Socialist Forum- Nepal (FSF-N) would join the government during the third Cabinet expansion. However, it did not happen owing to FSF-N’s stand for written agreement on the constitution amendment before joining the leftist government. Likewise, the Ratriya Janata Party-Nepal (RJP-N) was also considering joining the Oli-led government if the government agreed to amend the constitution beforehand as per its demands. Surprisingly, both the FSF-N and RJP-N were dead against PM K.P.Oli before the provincial and federal elections as Oli had taken a firm stand against constitution amendment.

There is a provision that all ministers and bureaucrats are mandated to make their properties public. However, judges were, until now, not obligated to do so. Newly appointed Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Sher Bahadur Tamang has been the first minister to announce that he would make it mandatory for judges to disclose their assets “Judges should disclose their property details, says law minister (THT,March 20, Page 2). He is even prepared to change the existing law, if needed, to force judges to do so. In fact, according to the existing Judicial Council Act, judges are required to submit their property details at the Judicial Council which keeps them confidential. Minister Tamang argues that this new provision will make judges transparent and more professional.

Nevertheless, unless the new government develops an effective monitoring mechanism to regularly monitor the status of the declared assets by assigning this job to one of its existing monitoring wing, the purpose of making the assets public of senior level public post holders, elected representatives and judges does not bear any weight.

Rai Biren Bangdel

Maharjgunj