Provincial governments are preparing to distribute budget to MPs in a 'swivel style' in the next year's budget as well. Since the Supreme Court banned the distribution of budget in the name of the Constituency Infrastructure Development Program (Parliamentary Development Fund), provincial governments have been requesting plans from MPs and including them in the budget. Like last year, the Far West, Lumbini and Bagmati provinces are preparing to include the plans chosen by MPs in the budget for the next fiscal year.

The Far West government is preparing to allocate a budget of Rs 2.23 billion for MPs in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2083/84. The Chief Minister's Office has stated that it is preparing to provide a budget of Rs 5 million to those directly elected and Rs 30 million to those on the proportional side. There are 32 direct and 21 proportional MPs in the 53-member Far West Assembly.

An MP said that the MPs have been asked to submit a list of preferred schemes to the Chief Minister and the Council of Ministers' Office in accordance with the budget allocated. 'The MPs will submit schemes as they wish,' said an MP from the ruling Congress. 'They have been asked to submit schemes worth Rs 50 million.' In the current fiscal year 082/83, a budget of Rs 50 million was allocated to the direct sector and Rs 30 million to proportional MPs. In the previous fiscal year 081/82, Rs 40 million was allocated to the direct sector and Rs 20 million to proportional MPs.

The Supreme Court had stayed the implementation of the Constituency Development Fund (Parliamentary Fund), which the government had allocated in the 080/81 budget so that provincial assembly members could share schemes. That year, Rs 30 million was allocated to each MP. The previous government had been allocating funds to MPs every year in the name of various programs to carry out development plans in their constituencies.

Questions have been raised about the transparency of most of the budgets and projects presented by MPs. There are allegations that the budget is allocated for fragmented projects to please close workers and voters. ‘MPs introduce such plans targeting their workers, we don’t know what they do, how they do it,’ said Prabhuram Chaudhary of Bhajani, ‘It seems like MPs introduce plans in the settings.’

Provincial MPs have been complaining that they have not been given the right to plan and allocate the budget as they should have been able to use the budget. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Physical Infrastructure Development has announced that meetings have been stopped at the ministry. A notice has been posted at the main gate of the ministry saying, ‘This is to inform you that meetings have been stopped from Thursday due to the busy schedule of the Honorable Minister.’ The decision was taken after the ministry started receiving a large crowd demanding plans, said Dhan Bahadur Rokaya, Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Chief Minister Kamal Bahadur Shah has been saying that no projects with a budget of less than Rs 2.5 million will be included in the upcoming budget.

The Lumbini provincial government has given the provincial assembly members the right to select plans for the upcoming year and has demanded plans worth Rs 40 million. After giving the provincial assembly members the right to select plans, local level people's representatives have expressed their opposition.

They demand that plans should be selected on the recommendation of the local government. However, plans worth Rs 40 million have been initiated by the provincial assembly members. Local level heads are demanding equal treatment of public representatives and not to interfere with their rights. Local levels have warned that they will not cooperate in the implementation if there is interference in the selection of plans.

For the current fiscal year, a budget of Rs 3.75 million was allocated to directly elected MPs from 52 constituencies in Lumbini, including the right to select plans, and Rs 1.1 million to those on the proportional side.

However, for the upcoming fiscal year, preparations are underway to provide a budget of Rs 40 million to directly elected members of the Provincial Assembly and Rs 20 million to members on the proportional side to enable them to implement development plans in their constituencies in a roundabout way.

The Lumbini government has been practicing this practice since the fiscal year 2079/080. It was started by former Chief Minister Shankar Pokharel from the fiscal year 2076/077. 35 members of the Provincial Assembly on the proportional side have been protesting, saying that the government is discriminating. They are demanding that they get the budget as if it were direct. Last week, a team led by Lumbini Province Deputy Speaker Menuka Khand KC met Chief Minister Chet Narayan Acharya with a demand to increase the budget for the proportional representation MP scheme for the coming year.

As the coordinator of the Women MP Network, Deputy Speaker KC has urged the Chief Minister to allocate an increased budget for the schemes of the Provincial Assembly members compared to the current fiscal year. ‘The government has been discriminating against the Provincial Assembly members,’ she said. ‘The demand is that the discrimination should end and equal funds should be available for the schemes.’

Within the budget allocated through a roundabout route for the Provincial Assembly members, there is a criterion for recommending schemes in the education, health and agriculture sectors. There is a directive that a scheme should be at least Rs 2.5 million. The government is preparing to allocate Rs 2.8 billion for the direct side and Rs 700 million for 35 members under the proportional side.

Out of 87 provincial assembly members in Lumbini, only 83 are currently in office. Local level people's representatives have been complaining that provincial assembly members are allocating the budget to feed cadres rather than the need and that it will not be achieved.

Lumbini Rural Municipality Federation President Bishnukumar Giri said that the government should not give the provincial assembly members the right to select plans by reducing the local level's right to select plans. 'Since the local level will implement the plans, the plans should be selected by the local government,' he said. 'The budget is being returned due to interference from above in the selection of plans and problems seen in the implementation of the selected plans. This puts the people in trouble.'

Lumbini provincial government spokesperson and Health Minister Ramji Ghimire said that provincial assembly members have also been given the right to select plans because they are directly connected to the voters. ‘The plan has been selected because it is necessary to connect directly with the voters and include small plans in the area,’ he said, ‘Even if the plan is selected by the honorable members, the implementation will be at the local level, and work will only be done after coordination.’

The Bagmati Provincial Government has set a ceiling for MPs to present plans worth Rs 30 million and Rs 50 million. The budget for the fiscal year 2083/084 has asked directly elected MPs to prepare plans worth Rs 50 million and proportional MPs to prepare plans worth Rs 30 million. Preparations are underway to distribute a budget of more than Rs 4 billion to 104 provincial MPs from Bagmati. Out of a total of 110, 6 MPs have resigned from their posts.

Provincial Assembly members and former ministers Yubaraj Dulal, Prakash Shrestha, Aman Kumar Maskey, Kundanraj Kafle, Basant Manandhar and Sunil KC had resigned from their posts for the House of Representatives elections held last Falgun.

A senior official of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning of Bagmati Province said that the budget ceiling of Rs 30 million and Rs 50 million will be provided to the 44 proportional and 60 elected MPs of the provincial assembly, respectively. “The budget has been formulated to distribute Rs 30 million to the proportional and Rs 50 million to the elected MPs,” he said.

According to an employee of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning, budget ceilings were provided to MPs in the past in the same style as the ‘Parliamentary Development Fund’. Accordingly, he said that plans have been demanded in the coming fiscal year as well by setting limits. The government had distributed budget ceilings to MPs and sent letters to select plans in their respective constituencies. According to the letter, the MPs have already submitted plans, said an employee involved in budget formulation.

The government had sent letters to MPs to provide plans as per the project selection guidelines. The plans recommended by the MPs will be entered into the project bank through the implementation units under the concerned ministries. Based on the criteria set by the guidelines, letters were sent to the MPs to include projects worth over Rs 50 million for physical infrastructure and over Rs 30 million for social projects.

According to a member of the provincial assembly, a plan worth Rs 3 billion at the rate of Rs 50 million for the 60 directly elected MPs and Rs 1.32 billion at the rate of Rs 30 million for the 44 proportional MPs has been demanded. According to him, the MPs are in the process of sending the plans according to the ceiling they have received. Some MPs have already sent the plans according to the ceiling they have received, while some are in the process of sending them, he said.

Government spokesperson and Minister for Economic Affairs and Planning Prabhat Tamang, however, claimed that the budget was not allocated to the MPs. He said that the MPs were only given options for selecting plans in the constituency and their consultations were taken to balance which of the plans received from the project bank would be prioritized.

MPs always dominate Karnali's budget
Every year, MPs dominate Karnali's budget allocation. In the budget allocated by various ministries of the province, the MPs have the right to recommend plans, and they have been doing intense 'lobbying' before the budget to make plans 

According to him, the district's thematic offices register project proposals for the projects recommended by the ward office, local level and MPs of the concerned area from Shrawan to Mangsir. 'The concerned office conducts field visits and initial screening of the proposed projects, and it has been arranged that the projects that meet the necessary criteria should be submitted to the committee by Magh 15 every year,' he said. 'The district-level recommendation committee, which will be formed under the leadership and participation of the MP, sends the list of projects to the concerned ministry by mid-Falgun. We include the projects that come to the commission through the ministry in the project bank.'

According to him, the projects included in the project bank are prioritized and included in the budget. He claims that when the plans are selected and implemented under the supervision of MPs, more returns have been seen in the plans.

For the plans to be included in the provincial government's budget, it is mandatory to fill out the form as per Schedule 2. The signature of the local level or provincial assembly member is mandatory in the form. Citizen leader Narendra KC said that since the coordinator of the planning recommendation committee is an MP, they have a say in it. ‘The MP’s recommendation is also in the schedule, and the MP is the coordinator and member in the selection of recommendations,’ he said, ‘The concept of the project bank has made the MP’s influence in the development plan even more.’ 

Former dean of Madhya Paschim University Pitambar Dhakal says that the influence of MPs in the development plan has increased economic chaos.  ‘Instead, when there was an infrastructure development fund, MPs were given a limited budget, and they used that to fulfill the expectations of the workers,’ he said, ‘After the court order cancelled the said program, they have a say in the development plan.’ He said that the trouble of middlemen has reduced somewhat after the start of the project bank. 

A deputy secretary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning said that it is difficult to withstand the pressure that MPs put on the selection of plans to plan for their constituencies during every budget. ‘The MPs are the ones who put pressure on the plan, and almost all employees are forced to turn off their phones a week before the budget,’ he said. ‘We have also been tightening the entry to the ministry for a week.’ According to him, the ministry is still crowded with MPs every day.

Ministry spokesperson Chetan Kumar Timilsena said that the recommendation committee, which includes MPs from the district, is facilitating the selection of plans as prescribed in the work procedure. ‘Whatever they do, they do according to the work procedure,’ he said. ‘Since they have direct contact with the public, they are also informed about the plans of the district, which has made the work of recommendations easier.’

Former Chief Minister and Provincial Assembly member Rajkumar Sharma said that the concept of the project bank has made the budget implementation and selection of the provincial government transparent, systematic and scientific. ‘The district-level committee does not only include MPs, but the task of technical evaluation and prioritization of plans should be the responsibility of the thematic office,’ he said. ‘The committee will recommend plans based on the criteria set.’ Another MP, Kal Bahadur Hamal, said that they will always play a positive role in regulating, monitoring and managing development plans through the district-level project recommendation committee.’

There are 40 MPs in the provincial assembly, including 24 direct and 16 proportional. In Karnali, Rs 5.4 billion was spent out of a budget of Rs 6.52 billion allocated for infrastructure development programs and infrastructure special programs until the fiscal year 2080/81.

The Karnali government had allocated a budget to the Infrastructure Development Fund since 2075 BS. In the first three years, Rs 1.6 billion was spent annually at the rate of Rs 40 million, while from the time of former Chief Minister Jeevan Bahadur Shahi, Rs 10 million was allocated for proportional MPs and Rs 40 million for direct MPs. But the Rs 1.12 billion allocated in the fiscal year 2080/81 was not implemented after the Supreme Court quashed the program.