Sunday, December 22, 2019

Red tape, auditing malpractice major causes of corruption

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has filed 206 cases against individuals for their alleged involved in corruption and irregularities in the first five months of the current fiscal year 2019-20.
As the country is implementing the federal system, there is a rise in the misappropriation of the state fund, reveals a survey report 'Study on Corruption and Good Governance in Nepal-2018' released last year. “During the period, the anti-graft body carried out 94 sting operations,” it reads, adding that the anti-graft body has registered 351 cases at the Special Court, the highest number in the history of the CIAA, in the last fiscal year, whereas it had conducted some 142 sting operations – also a record high – bringing 200 public officials to book.
Speaking at an event organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ICAN) today, the CIAA chief commissioner Nabin Kumar Ghimire said that corruption cases have been on the rise, mainly at the local government level. “The commission has started rigorous watch on officials at the local units.”
The survey report also reveals that only land revenue offices are more corrupt than local units. “Most of the complaints are related to quantity and quality of supplied goods, substandard construction, awarding contracts without following due procedures, budget misappropriation, illegal mining of aggregate, distribution of social security allowance, and misuse of office facilities.”
The participants though stressed on poor auditing process and fraudulent financial reporting as the reasons behind corruption, Ghimire sought effective role of chartered accountants (CAs) to check the cases of financial misappropriations in public offices.
The Corruption Perception Index 2019 released by the Transparency International (TI) also reveals that Nepal's position fell two notches to 124 in 2018.
Business leaders, on the occasion, also expressed concern over the expanding shadow economy and falling quality of development work due to increasing corruption, which has also increased cost of doing business.

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