Corruption in Nepal

Transparency International (TI) recent report on most corrupt countries in the world ranked Nepal in 121st position (Rank 1 refers to least corrupt). Though the ranking seems alarming but I was glad to see that it was not the worst. Bangladesh and Nepal both declared democracy at almost the same time and now Bangladesh is ranked 156th while Haiti concludes the list at 163rd.

My previous Blog gave an example of one of the indicators of corruptions in Nepal: “Dalal’s”. There have been many committees’ and council’s formed to wipe out the corruptions, but without a strong legal procedure and implementation it’s of no use. I won’t be surprised if one of the listed corrupt unveils this TI report in Nepal. I strongly believe government alone cannot obliterate the corruption; it needs the help of the citizens. Why the citizens should help, as the history reveals no concrete actions against the culprits.

I would like to propose a new plan to settle this corruption issue in Nepal, which might as well be applicable to other developing countries. A plan which is sustainable and will have definite involvement of the citizens. I know getting a legal action against the corrupt has been very hard to come by, so why not use people to defame them. Media is very powerful; I believe it can be more powerful than the government itself; as “Kantipur” displayed during the ‘Regression’ period. I propose a plan to defame the culprits red-handed in front of the media.

I have seen many Blogs in Nepal carrying out the online journalism and they all have video Blogs too. If these people can use hidden camera and micro phone to catch a scene then it will be a hit show. A television channel needs to step up to start a program like this. If they can manage five episodes using their own crew and televise it, I bet there will be hundreds of freelancers willing to follow it up. The channel can pay the freelancers handsome money based on the quality of the material. Looking at the unemployment rate in Nepal this freelancing job will be a hot cake, good income as well as daring. There will be high interest among the viewers so the channel can generate enough revenues to pay the freelancers. I know “Tahalka.com” did this in India and fished even ministers, but in Nepal there is no need to set it up like Tahalka did, everything is so obvious. If this plan works, then there will be a temporary increase in unemployment rate, but this time it’s the thugs who will be out cold.

Knowing the situation of Nepal and the perception of Nepalese viewers I am very positive about this plan. I don’t know what Nepalese law says about the privacy (I doubt if there is anything like privacy act) and what kind of logistic and technical constraints a TV channel has to face to broadcast this sort of show, but if there are no problems with those issues then its worth trying. Normally a successful show will have more episodes running over a decade, but with this show the more popular it gets, fewer episodes will be required; which in turn is very good for the country. Maybe one day we could say Nepal is ranked top ten in TI list.

Dalal Rule in Nepal

In the near future I might have to go back to Nepal and get visa stamped on my passport. This time though, I need to get labor certification from Ministry of Labor in Nepal as my visa status has been changed from F1 (student) to H1 (Working). The visa procedures in embassy is straight forward so only thing I need to worry is to get labor certification from sluggish Nepalese government agencies. I contacted my friend Bikram Shrestha who recently had to undergo all these processes in Nepal. I was very upset to hear what he had to do to obtain the certification. May be staying here in US and not having to face government office hassles of Nepal I might have forgotten that its way of life there.

He contacted one Dalal (broker), via one of his contacts, outside Labor Office, which is near Municipality Office in Teku. That dalal started filling out the labor permit form from his bag and took all Bikram’s documents. Bikram had already prepared medical document from a doctor stating his health condition. Now as per the law, labor office has to make sure that the employee has a health Insurance and in a bad event abroad, the families in Nepal are compensated. Bikram will definitely have health insurance as laws in US are strict about that. But the dalal made a fake insurance and the paperwork was ready. Bikram finally did get the labor certification but had to pay NRS 1,500 to dalal. In one way that doesn’t sound bad as his work was expedited. But what happens to all the Nepalese blue collar workers in Gulfs, if they die in work, their families won’t be compensated. Even a dalal can prepare a fake insurance and fool the law.

Although I don’t have many rough experiences in government offices in Nepal, there is one notable experience that I would like to share. I and my friends, fresh graduates from KU, wanted to register a firm so that we can independently set up an office. We wanted to bid on a proposal for Biodiversity project. Our proposal was eventually selected among the top five among hundreds applied, but we lost the race at the end. Nevertheless, registering our firm was more trouble than writing the proposal itself. We had to register our firm (in CDO office) before the proposal due date and incidentally that was the opening month for registration and renewal window. The constitution of the firm has to be approved before it can be registered and the clerk responsible for reading and approving the constitution was flooded with constitutions from prospective firms and surrounded by their representatives. I could see my file way down in the stack but was hopeful that it would be done within a day. Suddenly from nowhere there were other files brought by a peon with a chit, and the clerk started reviewing those first. People there protested but it was useless. I was adamant that I will go by the rule and make my work done; if I would have hired a dalal my work would have been swifter. Finally, around 5:30, one hour after scheduled office time, there was no one but me and the clerk in the room, all other people left in frustration. He was supposed to leave early at 4:30 but he received some more files accompanied by a chit. Once he was done with those files, he looked at me and asked for my file, I took it out from beneath the stack and then he reviewed and approved it. Then he started to share his frustration about those chits, his job will be on line if he disregarded it.

At that moment I had time and patience, but people don’t always have those. So they will have no option but seek help from dalal. I have thought about its possible solution which I will write in my next blog. I believe, at present, it won’t be unfair to say that ‘Dalal Rule in Nepal’.