Nepali Congress (NC) General Secretary Bishwa Prakash Sharma has said that Prime Minister (PM) Sher Bahadur Deuba and ministers in his Cabinet must make their wealth public.
Deuba's predecessor KP Sharma Oli and his ministers had submitted details of their wealth to the National Vigilance Center under the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers and made that public even as the laws of the land require them to only submit the details and not make them public.
But PM Deuba and his ministers have yet to submit the details despite Deuba and four ministers being sworn in on July 13, 2021 and Deuba last expanding the Cabinet on October 8, 2021.
Government Spokesperson and Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki expressed ignorance about the issue and told Setopati on Wednesday that he can speak on the topic only after taking stock about it.
But NC General Secretary Sharma expressed surprise when told Deuba and his Cabinet have not submitted the wealth details and said they must do so. "PM and ministers must be transparent. There is no doubt about that. Those representing Congress in the government must be committed to good governance," Sharma told Setopati. "We should not just seek details of those in the government when in opposition but should also be able to make that public while in the government."
He said attention of PM and NC President Deuba will be drawn to lack of submission of wealth details. "I did not know about the wealth details not being submitted. I will talk about this with PM."
The National Vigilance Center keeps the wealth details of PM and ministers and provide that to the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority if it finds that the constitutional anti-graft body does not have the details.
A team of the National Vigilance Center last week had gone to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers after the details were not submitted but PM Deuba and his ministers have yet to submit.
