As the discussion of the leadership change in the Karnali provincial government has begun, there has been confusion in the implementation of the budget and the implementation of plans for the upcoming budget. There is one and a half months left for the end of the fiscal year. The Karnali government has been able to spend only 29 percent of the budget in 10 months. Which is the lowest expenditure so far.

Two weeks ago, Congress President Gagan Kumar Thapa, Vice President Bishwaprakash Sharma and other leaders gave public statements saying that the government would be reorganized under the leadership of the Congress, which further increased the discussion of the government change in Karnali. According to the then central equation of the Congress-UML, UML parliamentary party leader Yamalal Kandel had become the Chief Minister with the support of the Congress since 2081 Shrawan.

At that time, there was an agreement between the two parties to share power for half and half terms. According to which Congress parliamentary party leader Jeevan Bahadur Shahi should have become the Chief Minister in last Chaitra. However, due to the change of leadership within the party, the results of the House of Representatives elections, and other factors, there has been some delay in the change of leadership, said Congress Chief Whip Hikmat Bahadur Bista.

Due to the talk of government reshuffle, the preparation of the budget for the coming year in Karnali had also started late. Although the provincial government was supposed to present the budget on Asad 1, only a week ago it distributed the ceiling to the ministries at the same level as last year (approximately Rs 32 billion).

This work was done in the past in Baisakh. By Mangshir, the local levels had submitted a list of potential projects to the thematic offices of the districts. Accordingly, the district-level project proposal selection recommendation committee, coordinated by the directly elected senior provincial assembly member, had recommended the names of the projects to the ministries by Baisakh 15. Last year, those projects were submitted to the ministries in Chaitra. ‘There was a change of government at the center, and there was talk of changes in the provinces as well,’ said an official of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning. ‘That had an impact on the selection of plans, which had some impact on the preparation of the budget.’ According to him, lawmakers are increasing pressure to implement their own plans.

Due to the government’s own slowness, it has been difficult to meet the revenue collection target this year. According to the Provincial Comptroller’s Office, the government, which had set a target of earning Rs 960 million this year, has earned only Rs 599.6 million with two months remaining. The government, which had earned Rs 483 million by Chaitra, collected Rs 119.3 million in revenue in Baisakh. ‘Even though we increased the tax base, we could not raise the revenue as expected,’ said Chetan Kumar Timilsena, Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning. ‘There is still one and a half months left, we are still trying to meet the target.’   

Out of the nearly 3,000 schemes allocated by the Karnali government this year, work has only begun on about 1,600 schemes. This year, the government, which brought a budget of 32.99 billion 66.55 million rupees, has been able to spend only 9.63 billion rupees till Baisakh. According to the office, the government has already spent 41.37 percent on the current budget during this period, while the development budget (capital) has barely spent only 21.5 percent. Last year, 32.65 percent of the budget was spent by Baisakh, while before that, about 35 percent was spent during the same period, according to the Provincial Treasury and Accounts Controller's Office. 

The Karnali government has a development budget of about 15 billion rupees, but only 4.3 billion rupees have been spent. ‘Since the Genji movement, the budget implementation of the provincial government has been slow, affected by festivals, elections to the House of Representatives, rumors of government reshuffle, etc.,’ said Provincial Accounts Controller Ratna Prasad Subedi. ‘Even though the progress of large and multi-year projects is low, the budget implementation situation is weak. Currently, most of the payments have been made only in installments.’

The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Urban Development, which has the largest development budget of Rs 10.73 billion, has not yet started work on about 100 out of 743 projects this year. The ministry has so far been able to spend only Rs 2.46 billion (22.36 percent). Ministry spokesperson Ramesh Subedi said that the recent increase in fuel prices and shortage of construction materials have had a major impact on development and construction.

According to him, work on about 100 projects is at a standstill due to the shortage of bitumen. Similarly, work has not started on about 150 projects in the Ministry of Water Resources and Energy Development, which has about 1,300 projects. The ministry has been able to spend only 1.26 billion rupees (32.90 percent) of the 3.83 billion rupees budget received this year. Information Officer Sagar Acharya of the ministry said that the expenditure has been low due to the lack of payment work on large projects.

The Karnali government's slowness has also affected administrative restructuring and some appointments. The Karnali Province Public Service Commission has been without a chairman since Poush 3 last year. The commission has been without a leader for almost a year and a half due to the failure to agree on a share-sharing agreement between the ruling Congress and the UML. The commission had its last advertisement on Ashad 23. The commission became leaderless after the then chairman Ram Prasad Upadhyay retired due to the mandatory age limit of 65 years.

The Commission's Information Officer Chandrabir Shahi said that the Commission has been facing policy problems due to the vacancy of the post of Chairperson for a long time. According to him, the Commission has not issued any advertisement since Shrawan of the current fiscal year due to the government not conducting an Organization and Management Survey (ONM). On Falgun 6, 2077, Basanti Kumari Singh (Shahi) and Bhakta Bahadur Khadka were appointed as members along with Chairperson, Upadhyay.

Although the tenure of the Commission Chairperson is 6 years, Upadhyay retired after four years due to age limit, while Khadka, who was appointed with him, has also retired. Currently, Member Singh Shahi is holding the responsibility of the Acting Chairperson. She is the wife of Congress Parliamentary Party leader and former Chief Minister Jeevan Bahadur Shahi. Bhakta Bahadur Dhakal is a member of the Commission.

The Karnali government formed a 4-member high-level committee under the coordination of former secretary Laxman Aryal on April 5 last year for administrative restructuring. After studying for almost two months, the committee submitted a report to the government on June 15 last year with recommendations including reducing the number of 8 ministries to 6, abolishing some directorates and offices, and reducing the number of employees from about 2,900 to 2,500.

There are currently 133 offices under the provincial government. It has been suggested that these offices be merged and reduced to 71. For the implementation of which, a 4-member implementation and facilitation committee was formed under the coordination of Secretary to the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers' Office Laxmi Kumar BK. But now the committee is inactive and no other work has been done except merging the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Law with the Chief Minister's Office.

Karnali government spokesperson and Minister for Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives Binod Kumar Shah claimed that the government is working according to its own rhythm. ‘The budget expenditure will be visible only after the final payment of most projects,’ he said, ‘National developments have also had some impact on the budget expenditure, but now most of the projects are in the process of being completed, and the budget expenditure will also increase this month.’

According to political analyst Narendra KC, there are two options for the new government in Karnali. According to the previous agreement between UML and Congress, there are two options: forming a government under the leadership of Congress parliamentary party leader Jeevan Bahadur Shahi or forming a joint coalition of Congress, UML and NCP.