DONORS SPENT MAJOR PORTION OF QUAKE AID ON INT’L STAFF: GOVT

The ministry has also found that such money doesn't have any impact on the real victims because the maximum amount of human resources used in rescue and relief distribution comprised foreign nationals.

A preliminary report, "The Gorkha quake 2015: Search, rescue and relief tasks", prepared by the Home Ministry has also stated that several donor countries and international organizations haven't stopped bringing in unnecessary human resources, all in the name of rescuing victims and distributing relief goods to them.

"It is found that a maximum amount of foreign human resources has been mobilized for search, rescue and relief distribution tasks. It shows that the bigger portion of the money received from foreign donor agencies is spent on human resources," reads the report.

The ministry has also said that the national needs have already been identified and national institutions and human resources are sufficient for the tasks of relief distribution and reconstruction.

"As Nepal at this stage needs only financial support, it has also become urgent to introduce a clear policy to focus on financial support and to discourage bringing in foreign human resources," it said.

The ministry has admitted that some of the foreign human resources couldn't be deployed properly in rescue operations as the authorities in the initial days didn't even know what type of human resources and equipment were coming into Nepal.

The ministry realized that an unnecessary number of international teams had arrived in the country as the government had called for all types of support in search and rescue tasks. "Therefore, a large amount of money received from the donor countries was spent for the tasks of search and rescue," it further said.

The report has suggested that in future the government should make immediate need assessments and call for international support only on the basis of these indicators, and that only the teams that match the needs should be allowed in for operations.

Altogether 4,521 rescue personnel from 34 countries were mobilized after the 7.8 magnitude quake of April 25 and aftershocks that devastated the country. Immediately after that the government kept its immigration offices open 24 hours with a view to ease the arrivals of international teams.