Ministries Deserted as Officials Fly Abroad

July 5, 2017

Seems Nepali officials are riding high on skies! As the sources say, most of the senior Nepali government officials are on official trips to foreign nations, while the Parliamentary and audit sessions are underway in the country.

The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation remained almost deserted on Tuesday, when the International Civil Aviation officials made a special visit to the office as a part of the safety audit of the country’s civil aviation sector.

“Director General at the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, Sanjiv Gautam went on a week-long Myanmar tour, while a two-member ICAO team began air safety audit on Tuesday,” CAAN manager told a media source.

According to the MoCTCA administrative division, four teams of the ministry, comprising of secretary and joint secretary, among others, were on official trips to Poland, Pakistan and other countries. Around 30 officials were said to have gone abroad in the last three to four days, says the division.

The Agriculture Ministry was also said to have sent a proposal to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to send at least 95 officials, including 60 ministry officials on study trips to Asian countries.

MoF has already approved the trips of almost 50 officials, of which, 33 already flew to China, while 13 more are yet to fly to Europe.

The Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation also sent 21 officials to The Philippines and Cambodia in the last month.

While officials ranging from non-gazetted to Secretary levels have already left, few others from various ministries are also expected to fly to foreign shores in the next 10 days.

MoF estimates that the foreign trips of the officials of various ministries, in the last month of the fiscal year, can cost around Rs 50 million to the government exchequer.