Review Nepal
Kathmandu, Nepal, March 10, 2020:Notwithstanding the widespread criticism, the government is preparing to continue the controversial Prime Minister Employment Program (PMEP) even with the plan to spend more amounts this year.
The government, which has already allocated a budget of Rs two billion to be distributed among the ‘unemployed’ as wages, has now sought additional loan of Rs 2.2 billion from the World Bank for this fiscal year with the motive to spend more amount this year.
Not only the PMEP but also the government was criticized during the last fiscal year after the PMEP was found grossly misused billions of rupees of loan amount obtained from the World Bank on the name of employment opportunities for the youth.
It was alleged that the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) led government distributed cash to its cadres in the pretext of creating jobs for the unemployed. The government had spent Rs 2.37 billion under PMEP during last fiscal year by offering employment opportunities for a month.
The amount was distributed from the $120 million loan amount offered by the World Bank to the government to implement Youth Employment Transformation Initiative (YETI).
Conceptually, the YETI aims to raise access of Nepali youths to employment opportunities but not the program like PMEP.
According to a source at the Ministry of Finance, the government has forward a proposal for additional loan of Rs 2.2 billion at the World Bank mentioning that the loan will be utilized by hiring two employees in each of the 753 local levels to support the PMEP, which would guarantee 100 days of job for the unemployed youth.
The government has made the proposal in the mean time when the office of the Auditor General and the Commission for the investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), the constitutional bodies responsible for the good governance, have already indicated in their reports that the local bodies as most corrupt bodies.
As unemployment situation is considered as one of the major problem of the country, the PMEP was initially believed that would benefit unemployed youths in a country. But it dragged into controversies after several instances had shown that the loan amount was distributed to the ruling head NCP’s cadres with the motive to strengthen its vote bank.
The PMEP implemented under the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security has been designed in the name of social security as per the constitutional provision of employment guarantee for the youths. However the ministry has changed nothing in the program taking into note the loopholes occurred while implementing the PMEP last year.
