KATHMANDU: “There is gold in Lhasa, but I have nothing in my ears”

This proverb does not apply to the diplomatic staff of the Nepali Consulate General in Lhasa, Tibet. That is because, apart from their meager allowances, they are among the lucky few who receive additional educational and family allowances in violation of rules. A prime example is the former Consul General, Nabaraj Dhakal.

After completing his tenure as Consul General in Lhasa and returning to Nepal onOctober 30, 2024, he joined the Ministry of Social Development of Gandaki Province. During his four years in Lhasa, Dhakal did not take along the dependent family members he was supposed to provide for. Taking family members to the post is a voluntary choice for officials and staff. However, Dhakal illegally claimed family and educational allowances in the names of one of his parents living in Nepal, his wife, and two sons.

Along with Dhakal, the Consul General Sabin Bhattarai and Deputy Consul General Deepak Sharma, who were posted in Lhasa, also claimed a total of Rs 2,866,000 in a single year in the names of family members without actually taking them to Lhasa.

Legally, a head of mission or staff posted abroad is entitled to foreign allowances for their spouse, children under 21, and one parent if they are taken along. If the family accompanies them, an additional 40 percent of the foreign allowance is granted in their names. However, heads of mission and staff posted in Lhasa have been receiving foreign allowances annually in the names of family members without actually taking them along.

Page 364 of the 61st report of the Auditor General states about the allowances received by Lhasa staff in violation of rules: “Even though dependent family members were not taken along, the employee posted at the mission was paid NPR 2,866,000 as family foreign allowance and educational allowance, which cannot be considered in accordance with regulations.”

According to the decision of the Council of Ministers onJune 6, 1994, officers and staff assigned to diplomatic missions were entitled to family and educational allowances even if dependent family members did not accompany them.

That provision was annulled by the Council of Ministers on April 3, 2015. Nevertheless, staff posted in Lhasa have been illegally receiving annual foreign allowances ranging from Rs 2.8 to 3.2 million in the names of family members, even after 2015, without taking their families along.

In the last fiscal year as well, employees posted in Lhasa received Rs 3,195,000 in allowances without their families accompanying them.

Staff receiving foreign allowances in the names of family members without actually taking them to Lhasa have explained that adverse climatic conditions prevent them from bringing their family there. Former Consul General Dhakal says, “In Lhasa, we ourselves always have to stay near oxygen cylinders. Even healthy people can suddenly collapse due to low oxygen, so how could we take our family members?”

Looting the state treasury
Lhasa is not an exception in illegally claiming allowances and benefits at foreign missions. This malpractice also exists at the Nepali Consulate General in New York, USA. The government abolished the provision for having a Consul General at the level of Joint-Secretary and established an Under-Secretary-level position on July 8, 2018. However, Deputy Consul General Bishnu Prasad Gautam, acting as Chargé d’Affaires, received the Joint-Secretary-level allowance without an official position.

The Auditor General has recommended recovering the illegal allowance of Rs 1,082,000 that Gautam received from October 29, 2020 to July 2, 2023. However, he has not yet returned the money to the state treasury.

Gautam, who was promoted to Joint-Secretary and returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in February 2024, admits: “As Acting Consul General, I received an additional USD 250 per month. The Auditor General has recommended recovery, but I have not returned the amount.”

Nepal spends about Rs 4.50 billion annually on its 40 foreign missions. The majority of this expenditure goes to salaries, allowances, and benefits for officers and staff of the missions. Using the Right to Information, Nepal News obtained data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs showing that total spending on Nepali missions abroad in the last three fiscal years exceeded Rs 11.36 billion.

Nearly 100 percent of this amount was spent on salaries, allowances, and benefits of diplomatic officers (Ambassadors and Consul Generals) and staff posted in the missions.

According to the data, in fiscal year 2023/24, salaries of employees at 40 missions amounted to Rs 136 million while the salaries of Ambassadors and Consul Generals amounted to Rs 30.24 million.

Employees posted within the country receive normal salaries and allowances, while officers and staff posted abroad receive foreign allowances several times higher than their regular pay.

Due to attractive foreign allowances and various other benefits, there is intense competition among foreign service employees to get posted abroad. In fiscal year 2023/24 alone, staff and officers at missions spent nearly five times their salary—Rs 841,200,000—on foreign allowances.

According to Subsection 11 of Rule 7 of the Government Travel Expense Regulations, employees and officials entitled to daily travel allowances for official work do not receive local or other allowances for the period they use the daily allowance.

However, officers and staff at missions receiving foreign allowances have also claimed daily allowances for internal travel in the host country, which alone amounted to an additional Rs 19,500,000 in the last fiscal year. In fiscal year 2021/22, mission employees and officials had claimed an extra Rs 1,976,000 in allowances.

The habit of claiming allowances without an official position exists at the Nepali Consulate General in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as well. The position of Consul General (Joint-Secretary level) in Jeddah was transferred by the Council of Ministers on April 3, 2015 from the Consulate in Chengdu, China.

Due to attractive foreign allowances and various other benefits, there is intense competition among foreign service employees to get posted abroad. In fiscal year 2023/24 alone, staff and officers at missions spent nearly five times their salary—Rs 841,200,000—on foreign allowances.

Since the head of mission’s post was relocated, the Jeddah mission was temporarily led by Under-Secretary-level staff. According to Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lok Bahadur Paudel Chhetri, only a few months ago, Joint-Secretary Paras Pandit was sent as the head of the mission there.

The then acting head of mission in Jeddah, Under-Secretary Shatrughna Pokharel, and the former head Srijana Adhikari, who had left Jeddah, together received Rs 1,096,000 last year in foreign allowances under the name of a permanent Consul General.

The 62nd report of the Auditor General recommends recovering these foreign allowances, which were paid without an official position. The officer, now transferred to the Nepali mission in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, says, “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had inquired about this, and a response has already been provided.”

Shatrughna Pokharel, the former acting head in Jeddah, is now at the Nepali Embassy in Portugal.

Apart from foreign allowances, the government provides mission employees and officials with various benefits under titles such as uniform allowance, cost-of-living allowance, contribution-based insurance expenses, communication expenses, fuel, vehicle maintenance, and house rent for accommodation.

Since arbitrary claims for benefits under the name of Council of Ministers’ decisions became widespread, the Public Accounts Committee of the then Parliament repeatedly instructed the need to create a unified law regarding service benefits for foreign mission officers and staff.

Similarly, the Auditor General’s Office has repeatedly questioned the irregular benefits claimed by officers and staff at foreign missions. However, despite the observations of parliamentary committees and the Auditor General’s reports, the trend of claiming arbitrary benefits and exploiting the state treasury in foreign missions has not decreased; on the contrary, it has increased every year. The irregularities and malpractices in foreign missions have also grown because they remain outside the general public’s awareness and media coverage.

In addition to various allowances and benefits, the government also provides medical treatment expenses for officers, staff, their families, and dependents posted abroad. Since this medical treatment expenditure began to increase excessively each year, the government issued a directive in 2014 regarding healthcare for officers and staff posted abroad.

The directive allows the mission to reimburse up to Rs 20,000 in one instance if the treatment expenses of insured employees are not covered by the insurance company.

For higher expenses, if the insurance company does not reimburse, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can decide on medical treatment costs for officers and staff posted at the mission, based on the recommendation of the head of the mission.

The 62nd report of the Auditor General recommends recovering these foreign allowances, which were paid without an official position. The officer, now transferred to the Nepali mission in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, says, “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had inquired about this, and a response has already been provided.”

Ironically, mission officers and staff have violated this provision of the directive as well. For example, two years ago, the father of employee Radharaman Dubey, working at the Nepali Embassy in Washington D.C., passed away in the U.S. During the treatment, the insurance company refused to cover his father’s expenses, so the Ministry of Foreign Affairs paid Rs 10 million as medical treatment expenses.

Another example: for the treatment of the wife of employee Gyanhari Gyawali at the Nepali Embassy in Japan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also spent a large sum. The ministry paid Rs 5.6 million for Gyawali’s wife’s treatment.

Health insurance abroad is considered expensive. However, employees and officers at foreign missions send separate proposals for health insurance.

For instance, on November 10, 2024, Krishna Prasad Oli, appointed Ambassador to China, submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the previous fiscal year requesting health insurance worth Rs 13.3 million, citing the need for “detailed treatment at a good hospital in China.”

Initially, Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai was also positive about the proposal. However, the ministry rejected Oli’s proposal, citing that it could not add a liability of Rs 13.3 million for nine employees at the Beijing mission. Currently, without insurance, officers and staff at the Nepali Embassy in Beijing can claim Rs 4 million annually under the name of medical treatment.

A few years ago, the Nepali Embassy in New Delhi also submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide health insurance, similar to the proposal from China. When the proposal would have added an annual liability of Rs 70 million under the name of health insurance, the ministry deferred it at the time, citing budget constraints. Treatment expenses for 18 employees and officers at the Nepali Embassy in New Delhi used to cost about Rs 10 million per year. Currently, that expense has reached Rs 16 million.

The annual expenditure on medical treatment for officers, staff, and their families posted abroad can reach up to Rs 290 million. According to data provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in fiscal year 2023/24, 40 missions spent Rs 294.1 million on medical treatment and Rs 47.3 million on insurance. This is the highest amount recorded so far. Two years ago, this expenditure was limited to Rs 272.3 million.

Health insurance abroad is considered expensive. However, employees and officers at foreign missions send separate proposals for health insurance.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there are 244 sanctioned positions in foreign missions. Adding the heads of 41 missions, the total number of officers and staff reaches 285. Two years ago, the cost of medical treatment and insurance for these 285 individuals and their dependent families exceeded Rs 340 million. Dividing the expenditure on insurance and treatment among the 285 people, the average per person comes to Rs 1,192,000.

When spending under this heading began to rise excessively, onApril 17, 2012, the Public Accounts Committee directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to control it. However, ignoring the committee’s decision, the ministry continued to further increase insurance and medical treatment expenses. The Public Accounts Committee reiterated its directive to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on June 21, 2019. Still, it had no effect.

One billion on rent alone
Even for housing, little is spent from the state treasury for employees posted at foreign missions. The government provides ordinary accommodation buildings for staff, except for the head of mission. However, foreign missions spend nearly Rs 1 billion annually on house rent for staff posted abroad.

In the last fiscal year alone, approximately Rs 970 million was spent on house rent. Bhesprasad Bhurtel, Chief Accountant at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, argues that housing expenses are high abroad, hence the high rent for mission employees and officers. He says, “In expensive cities abroad like London, the U.S., and Geneva, house rent is naturally high. That is why rent expenses are high.”

Last year, missions spent Rs 840.7 million solely on house rent for employees. In 2022, the Public Accounts Committee raised questions after Nepali missions abroad spent unlimited amounts on housing in violation of Council of Ministers’ decisions.

On April 17, 2012, the committee had directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to establish a uniform policy with standards for housing expenses incurred by missions. However, this directive from the committee has also not been followed. Therefore, the popular Nepali proverb “There is gold in Lhasa, but I have nothing in my ears” has become entirely irrelevant for officers and staff of foreign missions.