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Can we really get rid of corruption in Nepal?

All political parties talk about zero tolerance on corruption during election campaigns, but it is all talk and when they have been in power, they have not tackled this issue because they themselves are engaged in corruption. Let's see if Balen and his cabinet will do more to minimize corruption in this land or will they also be swept by the system run by corrupt bureaucrats and shady byaparis engaged in tax evasion and other illegal acts?

We have seen the cash at Deuba's house. For loyal Congressi cadres, it was all AI and for Gagan Thapa, it was all about forming a powerful commission to investigate whether it was real cash. Gagan has done us all proud by having his father-in-law, a 78-year old grandfather, back in the House from the PR quota.

We have heard from Prachanda himself that as political parties, they do have tons of cash but he is smart enough not to hoard it all himself, but throw it around in his daughter's house or cousin's or loyal cadres. Oli claims to be zero-corrupt but with Bhogate on his side and few pickpocket comrades, it is no secret that UML is the richest political party in town. But all that money went to waste as they were thrashed in this election.

Some of us argue that our government employees barely make enough to survive and that's why they have to engage in corruption. Some think that the solution is to increase the salaries by at least x2 but will that really solve the problem? I don't think so.

There are two kinds of corruption in our land. One is at the bottom level where we the public face the low-ranking police constables or government employees in our sarkari offices and have to pay them extra to get things done. The traffic police at Thankot or any other check points across the country do extort mostly from truck drivers be it only Rs 100. With thousands of trucks, the money builds up and then it flows all the way to the top.

If you want to change your basai sarai, the sarkari karmarchari will ask you for Rs 2,000 extra service fee. If you want to get things efficiently at the local malpot or yatayat or even at the CDO office, then you will have to pay the quick service fee. A few thousand here and there from common citizens from nearly all of our government offices adds up to billions of Rupees a year and from peons to hakims, the extorted amount is shared according to their ranks.

Then there is the top-level corruption where sarkari karmacharis themselves pay off our netas to get plum postings and promotions, while the honest ones are transferred to rural areas or have to wait for years to get promoted. We all know that to become a MD for Nepal Telecom, one had to pay Rs 10 Karod bribe to the Minister. Many years ago, senior police officers would run around netas carrying boras of cash to be promoted to DIGs and Rs 7 Karod or more to become the IGP.

I am not saying all IGPs have paid Karods to get the top post because sometimes, the courts intervene or everything moves so fast that netas have to appoint someone without getting the opportunity to bargain with prospective candidates. And once someone becomes the IGP, there is pressure to post the neta's manchey to places where they can make money like in our border areas. We import more than 10 billion dollars worth of stuff from the Indian border. This is where the customs, the police, the APF make tons of money from the byaparis.

Then, we have the shady byaparis who are not engaged in trading or opening factories to generate employment but are just middlemen for international companies printing bank notes, passports, IDs and telecom equipment providers and more. These 'agents' byaparis go around bagging government contracts while costing our treasury more and benefiting the hakims and netas and themselves. Once in a while they do get caught but it seems only hakims and byaparis face the music while ministers and their godfathers get away with it.

It is now time for the new government to come up with an amnesty plan for the shady ones. Ask all byaparis who have engaged in corruption to name their amount and the recipients. Ask all hakims to come forward and be transparent about how much they had to pay to get the plum posting or promotion. If we give them amnesty, then maybe they will talk and name names. Then, finally, we can send our corrupt netas to jail and all the netas involved in all the corruption scams since the 1990s will face the music.

We cannot end corruption tomorrow. The police wallahs at border points have paid tons of money to their superiors to get there. The reason they are there is to make at least a few lakhs Rupees a month apart from their 30, 40 grand salary and hopefully last a year there and have enough to buy a few anna of land somewhere.

But we can start slowly. First, we make sure that our sarkari karmacharis are doing their job right. We then make sure that our byaparis are not bringing in trucks of goods from across the border at night by paying off the customs and the police. We have to make sure that everyone is doing their job right instead of just blaming everyone for the mess. And to survive on the current salaries, the new government needs to make sure that education, healthcare and food products are affordable for all because that is where we spend the most.

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