Rotten at the root

High local level corruption suggests people’s representatives there have copied the corrupt ways of their federal leaders.

Registration of corruption cases against elected representatives and officials at local units across the country has become common. The situation is so bad that several local units have even been unable to do their regular work as officials who make key decisions have been suspended after facing corruption charges. For instance, works at Godawari Municipality of Lalitpur, Bagmati Municipality of Sarlahi and Jaleswar Municipality of Mahottari have been hampered as both mayors and deputy mayors of the municipalities have been suspended after they were chargesheeted in corruption cases. The local units have been paralyzed as they haven’t been able to settle who will make decisions as the acting chief; existing laws didn’t envision both top officials being sued at the same time. The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration is now consulting the Office of the Attorney General on removing legal complications in this regard.