GOPAL GARTAULA DIFFICULT LESSONS: Government neglect in providing quality education at the local level means that communities like this one in Jhapa have to depend on their own meagre resources to educate their children.

As the Kathmandu-centric media's obsession with the knockout tournament of political wrestling continues, the people have become even more disinterested and detached with another presidential ultimatum to the parties to form a consensus government.

All this is taking its toll on the budget and the economy. We have become an international laughing stock for having a prime minister who pardons murderers and challenging the doctrine of universal jurisdiction. Coalition members have stonewalled on the ratification of an international anti-money laundering bill, and if Nepal doesn't meet the deadline next month it will be blacklisted: a disaster for a country so dependent on remittances and tourism.

The worst harm from this fluid transition is being caused at the grassroots. Local accountability was already suffering because we've not had local elections since 1997. A year after the dissolution of the all-party mechanism, which ran local government on an ad-hoc basis since 2008, millions of taxpayers' money are being embezzled across the 75 districts. Local political leaders, bureaucrats, and village strongmen are all in cahoots to loot state funds. When this crooked arrangement breaks down, there is violence, as seen in remote Simikot which was under curfew for three days this week.

A report released on Monday by The Asia Foundation notes that corruption at the local level has become an enduring practice which has gained general acceptance among multiple stakeholders. The report points towards 'ethical degeneracy in local politics which is inherently different from opportunistic corruption' in other sectors of the government.

The report has made a detailed analysis of the mismanagement of health and education services in 13 VDCs of six districts and (surprise, surprise) concludes that the capacity of institutions at the local level and the quality of services they provide have not improved after 13 years since the Local Self Governance Act went into effect, depriving the people of the democratic dividend.

Baburam Bishwakarma of the Centre for Investigative Journalism comes to a similar conclusion about government neglect in improving the quality of education at the local level. Government-run schools in the districts have been inflating the number of students enrolled to cash in on the state's incentive program, people up and down the line in the bureaucracy and local political parties are on the take, and everyone gets a share.

The story, published in Shikshak magazine this month, exposes how the Ministry of Education couldn't be bothered. The plan to improve the quality of education and ensure accountability by transferring management to local communities has backfired, with a powerful few capturing school management committees and pocketing kickbacks from construction of school infrastructure and procurement of books and stationery.

A similar story arises in community, health, and roads. Local health posts and hospitals lack equipment, medicines, and manpower. And despite a sharp increase in government spending on health sector (no 7.5 per cent of the budget), a lot of it bankrolled by donors, people continue to die in large numbers from preventable ailments. This is happening not just in remote areas of the country. At the Koshi Zonal Hospital located in Nepal's second-biggest city of Biratnagar, doctors conduct surgeries by candlelight because there is no diesel for generators.

The Local Self-Governance Act devolved responsibility for local development in the 1990s to elected village and district councils without effectively giving them decision-making powers. And in the absence of elections, local units are now plagued with political interference and malfeasance. This has resulted in a breakdown in Nepal's much-vaunted progress at local development through community action.

The story is repeated across the whole spectrum of rural governance because of the criminalisation of local politics: rackets involving fake citizenship papers, logging inside community forests, and national parks, illegal sand-mining from the rivers, and the embezzlement of old age pension funds and the budget set aside for youth self-employment.

Investigative reports in the media about these crimes fail to force the government to act, confirming that corruption and impunity have gained general acceptance. The central government, obsessed with extending its tenure, seems past caring. Political corruption is tolerated because that is the only way the government can survive.

It has become fashionable for our leaders to blame everything on the transition and propose that people must be willing to sacrifice for the sake of the 'peace process' and 'revolutionary changes'. But an unending transition and lack of elections cannot be an excuse to turn the country into a banana republic.

For local governance to succeed in Nepal, we need greater devolution of power from the centre with a system of horizontal accountability. Going into a federal system of governance may address that to some extent, but it could also open a whole new can of worms unless local elections throw up responsible leaders.

See also:
By the people, for the people, ANURAG ACHARYA
The prolonged political deadlock in Kathmandu is trickling down to the grassroots, and undermining community spirit

Corrupt at the roots, ANURAG ACHARYA
The all-party mechanism grabs headlines for all the wrong reasons

A decade of democratic deficit , ANURAG ACHARYA
Local elections needed to spur local development, most survey respondents say