Civil Servants Spend Rs 1 Billion Govt Budget on Foreign Visits

July 12, 2017

Government officials, who are supposed to serve the public, are becoming a burden to tax payers in Nepal.

As the sources reveal, official foreign visits of 1,400 civil servants in the last two months costed a billion rupees for the government.

Around 1,442 officials were said to have already received approvals for their visits to almost 30 countries, and more are expected soon. The list excludes the visits to India.

“Some visits were really useful to boost bilateral relations and for personal growth. But most of those visits were sheer waste of money,” reads a statement from PMO.

Keeping aside the intended objectives of bilateral ties and study tours, factors such as travel & daily expense allowances and luxury comforts form the major source of attraction for the officials travelling abroad.

“Most civil servants consider foreign junket as a journey to heaven. Since there is a provision of expenditure, they spend more time on how to arrange foreign junket than performing their assigned duties,” says Former General Administration Minister, Lalbabu Pandit.