The Ministry of Labor has stated that an investigation is underway in coordination with the police into the case of collusion in which workers going to Malaysia and Gulf countries were defrauded by extorting more than the prescribed amount.
What you should know
Two agent companies and a dozen or so health testing institutions have been brought under investigation for allegedly charging higher than the prescribed 'health test fees' from workers going for foreign employment.
A joint team of the Ministry of Labor and the police has started the investigation by seizing the documents of Microtek, which is responsible for the health screening of workers going to Malaysia, and GAMKA, which is responsible for the Gulf countries, and the listed organizations that conduct health screening.
The Ministry of Labor has stated that an investigation is underway in coordination with the police into the case of fraud by collecting more than the prescribed amount from workers going to Malaysia and the Gulf countries in collusion. An official from the ministry informed that the documents seized during the investigation and details of suspicious transactions are being sent to the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the police for further investigation.
Former AIG of Nepal Police Rajendra Singh Bhandari became the Minister of Labor and Employment on 26th Mangshar in the government led by former Chief Justice Sushila Karki, which was formed on the foundation of the Gen-G movement of last Bhadra. While taking charge after taking oath, he had said that he would work to dismantle the 'organized network' that has flourished under the guise of foreign employment. Two weeks later, on 9 Poush, Bhandari revoked the decision to increase the amount charged for health examination fees from 6,500 to 9,500 from workers going to Malaysia and the Gulf countries for foreign employment.
Three weeks after the fee was reduced, a task force comprising employees and police was formed within the ministry. The ministry has stated that documents were seized from one and a half dozen institutions that had obtained permission to conduct biomedical examinations for Malaysia and the Gulf countries during the investigation initiated by the task force.
Labor Minister Bhandari informed that further investigation into the illegal collection of excessive amounts from workers going to foreign employment will be conducted by the CIB. ‘We are going to send the collected documents and other facts/evidence to the CIB,’ he said, ‘The remaining investigation will be done by the police.’
The then Labor Minister Sharat Singh Bhandari had amended the ‘Procedures for Listing, Renewal and Monitoring of Health Examination Institutions, 2072’ by adding a list of diseases for which health examinations of workers going to Malaysia and the Gulf countries for employment were conducted. Meningitis was also included in it. The test fee for meningitis alone was set at Rs 3,500. The government's decision to increase the fee was controversial and could not be implemented.
The procedure was implemented last October when Prime Minister Karki was also the Minister of Labor. Even though the decision to increase the fee was revoked after Bhandari became the minister, a complaint was filed with the task force after the process of collecting money from the workers did not stop.
An official from the ministry said that the amount collected without the approval and permission of the Nepal government was fraud and an investigation into the crime was necessary. 'Laborers who have undergone health tests in Nepal should undergo a separate health test after reaching the destination country. If they fail the test there, they should be returned. But adding more diseases to the list of tests to be carried out before reaching the destination country and adding an unjustified burden to the workers is fraud,' said an official from the task force. 'It seems that the fraud took place in collusion between Nepal and some companies in the destination country.'
The official said that officials/employees of some state bodies have also patronized them in the past. ‘A detailed investigation is currently underway,’ he said. According to the Ministry of Labor, Microtech for Malaysia and Gamka for the Gulf countries have taken the responsibility of conducting biomedical tests of workers in Nepal. Microtech and Gamka register specific biomedical institutions and conduct health tests of workers through them.’
During the investigation, Labor Minister Bhandari informed that Microtech alone was found to have collected Rs 2.7 billion 2.62 billion as health test fees from workers going to Malaysia. ‘The amount collected was more than the prescribed amount, and the amount collected was not regulated by the Nepal government,’ he said,
‘On the one hand, the country is on the money laundering grey list, and on the other hand, there is no accounting of the amount collected from workers going for foreign employment. Therefore, it also attracts the crime of money laundering.’
An agreement was signed between Microtech and Destinate (Malaysia) in 2070 to assign the responsibility of conducting health tests of workers going to Malaysia. An official of the task force says that it is necessary to break the network as the testing fees were then arbitrarily increased.
According to the ministry, Kailash Khadka of Microtech, a company that had an agreement with a Malaysian company, was also blacklisted by Kailash Bikas Bank in 2073. It was found that Khadka was blacklisted by the bank for not paying Rs 454,052.
Minister Bhandari says that it is unacceptable for a private company to mislead the government and illegally charge fees from citizens of a sovereign country in an opaque and arbitrary manner, for a foreign company to come to Nepal and secretly monitor without the government's knowledge, and then increase the list of diseases to be tested in collusion and collect money under the same title. He says, "Those involved in this crime will be brought under investigation through the police." Discussions have already been held with the Finance Minister as money laundering also needs to be investigated.
Minister Bhandari also informed that a new procedure is being formulated to allow workers to undergo health check-ups at affordable fees even in government hospitals, by scrapping the procedure that has been amended repeatedly due to collusion.
