Kathmandu [Nepal], July 10 – Nepal’s ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) and opposition parties have reached an agreement to share the leadership of subcommittees under the House of Representatives’ Public Accounts Committee (PAC), ending a dispute over the allocation of key oversight roles.
The PAC has formed five subcommittees to examine government audit irregularities and outstanding audit observations.
A committee meeting held on June 6 (Asar 22) to finalize the subcommittees’ terms of reference and appoint their coordinators had ended without consensus after the ruling RSP claimed leadership of all five subcommittees.
Opposition parties objected to the proposal leading to a deadlock.
At Friday’s meeting the RSP softened its position and agreed to allow the opposition to lead two of the five subcommittees paving the way for an agreement.
During the meeting, RSP lawmaker Rukesh Ranjit proposed that his party head three subcommittees while the opposition would lead the remaining two. The proposal received unanimous support.
Under the agreement the opposition’s two subcommittee leadership positions will be held by lawmakers from the CPN-UML and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) with each party leading one subcommittee.
From the RSP, Rukesh Ranjit has been appointed coordinator of the Finance and Good Governance Subcommittee, Khagendra Sunar will head the Economic Production, Science and Human Capital Subcommittee and Manish Jha has been named coordinator of the Social Justice, Welfare and Inclusion Subcommittee.
The appointments end the dispute over the leadership structure of the PAC subcommittees allowing them to begin their work of reviewing government audit findings.
