KATHMANDU:  President Ram Chandra Paudel himself is a seasoned political leader. He has been active in Nepali politics for six decades. Beginning his political journey at the age of 16 through the ‘Himalayan Chhatra Sangh’, Paudel has served once as Speaker, six times as a Member of Parliament, six times as a Minister, and also as Vice-President of the Nepali Congress.

Why would a person with such wide-ranging political experience need a political expert? And that too, Sunil Bahadur Thapa, who entered politics only a few years ago? The answer is not straightforward. To understand the underlying reasons behind the appointment of advisors and experts, one must look at how state coffers are being spent on nepotism, favoritism, and the management of party cadres.

After being elected as President on March 9, 2023, Ram Chandra Paudel appointed former minister and Nepali Congress leader Sunil Bahadur Thapa as his political expert on March 30, 2023. Sunil, son of a Panchayat-era leader and former Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa, has little political experience. He had joined the Nepali Congress only two years earlier, after leaving the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP).

Sunil neither has deep knowledge of Nepali Congress politics nor long experience in Nepali politics. Born the same year Paudel entered politics, he worked for 22 years at the United Nations before entering politics in 2012. Just a year after joining politics, he became a Constituent Assembly member and a minister. In the 2022 House of Representatives election, he was defeated by UML leader Rajendra Rai while running as a Nepali Congress candidate. It is said that his appointment as presidential advisor was less about capability and more due to pressure from Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba.

According to Clause 22 of the Good Governance (Operation and Management) Rules, a chief political advisor must have at least 15 years of political experience. But Thapa, who entered politics only a few years ago, was appointed as an expert.

Ironically, his own father, then-Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa, had established standards for such positions back in 2003, citing misuse of advisory and secretariat roles. Now, his son has been appointed advisor in violation of those very standards.

Controversy over other advisors

President Paudel’s other advisors have also been embroiled in controversies. For economic advisor, he had appointed Chiranjibi Nepal, a former Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank. However, Nepal was forced to resign after making a public statement against a Cabinet decision. On May 2, 2024, the Cabinet had decided to print Nepal’s new political map on the Rs 100 note. Chiranjibi Nepal publicly remarked that including the new map on the note was wrong, echoing the views of Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar. Since then, the President has had no economic advisor, showing that the absence of one makes little difference.

President Paudel’s legal advisor is Baburam Kunwar. Previously, he had been appointed Attorney General during Sushil Koirala’s premiership and Gandaki Province Chief when Sher Bahadur Deuba was Prime Minister. Paudel later appointed him as his legal advisor. But controversy arose when it was revealed that Kunwar had also served as the legal advisor to “Nature Herbs,” a company operated by fugitive cooperative fraudster GB Rai. 

The parliamentary probe committee on cooperative fraud, led by Surya Thapa, questioned whether it was “shameful” for someone connected to Rai’s legal affairs to serve as the President’s advisor. 

Kunwar faced widespread pressure to resign, but he refused, stating that he would not step down merely based on accusations.

A further serious issue was the appointment of President Paudel’s own son-in-law, Parmeshwar Pokharel, as his hydrology and environment expert. Pokharel had aspired to become Mayor of Pokhara Metropolitan City in the 2022 local elections but failed to secure a party ticket. Paudel then appointed him as an expert advisor, raising concerns of nepotism.

Controversial appointment of President Paudel’s daughter

President Paudel’s most controversial decision was appointing his youngest daughter, Abagya Paudel, as his Chief Personal Secretary. A day after his appointment as President, he had named former Ambassador Suresh Chandra Chalise to the post, but later transferred Chalise to the role of International Relations Expert and placed his daughter in the chief position.

From a constitutional perspective, it was inappropriate to appoint Chalise as an International Relations Expert. Since the President does not hold executive power, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the principal advisor in matters of international relations. In such a context, keeping a separate international relations expert in the President’s office amounts to unnecessary duplication and additional expenditure.

According to the President’s Office information officer Archana Khadka (Adhikari), expert advisors receive facilities equivalent to a Minister of State. Their monthly salary and perks amount to over Rs 75,000. Based on this, nearly Rs 5 million annually is being spent solely on advisors and experts in the President’s Office.

What kind of work are these well-facilitated advisors and experts doing? How has the state benefitted from them? There is no record. “Advisors provide input when the President needs it, but the office does not keep records of what advice was given,” Khadka said.

According to the latest quarterly report published on the President’s official website, Paudel has so far attended 38 formal events, delivered messages or greetings in 17 of them, held one diplomatic meeting, and sent congratulatory messages to seven foreign heads of state or government.

The constitution does not grant the President an executive role, and the Vice-President’s authority is even more limited. Both act only on the recommendation of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers.

Vice-President Ramsahay Prasad Yadav has appointed five advisors: Manjarul Ansari (Public Relations and Coordination), Binod Kumar Paudel (Foreign Affairs), Mithilesh Kumar Singh (Law), Chandeshwar Sada Musahar (Environment and Climate Change), and Jagendra Bahadur Chhantyal (Language, Arts and Culture). Their annual cost also hovers around Rs 5 million.

For a President without executive authority, the staff burden has grown: five advisors, 20 in the private secretariat, and 68 in the office, totaling 93 personnel drawing salaries, allowances, and facilities from state coffers. For the fiscal year 2025/26, the government allocated Rs 169.2 million for the President’s Office and Rs 77.2 million for the Vice-President’s Office.

Expansion of secretariat positions

The President and Vice-President Remuneration and Facilities Act (Clause 13.1) allows the President to appoint up to seven advisors and the Vice-President up to five. 

For the private secretariat, the President may appoint one Chief Personal Secretary, one Co-Personal Secretary, two Deputy Personal Secretaries, four Personal Officers, one Computer Assistant, one Photographer, one Press Coordinator, four Drivers, and four Office Assistants—making a total of 19 staff.

But this was not enough. On March 3, 2019, the schedule of the Act was amended, raising the number to 31, adding 10 office assistants and 8 drivers. Similarly, the Vice-President’s staff ceiling was increased from 13 to 23.

Criticism in parliament

The issue of unnecessary appointments in the President’s and Vice-President’s offices has often been raised in Parliament. OnMarch 26, 2023, speaking in the House of Representatives, CPN-UML lawmaker (now Education Minister) Raghuji Panta argued that advisors and experts are unnecessary for the President and should be removed through legal amendment. 

He said, “The President regularly takes advice from the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers. Legal provisions that allow the President to function as a separate power center weaken the parliamentary system.”

This issue has previously been debated in Parliament. On 13 February, 2002, during a meeting of the House of Representatives, six lawmakers criticized the government for failing to remove dozens of appointed advisors. However, such debates have now disappeared from Parliament, according to Chanda Karki Bhandari, a member of the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee. She said, “Advisors and experts are not appointed on the basis of subject expertise. Instead, there is a tendency to appoint one’s children and party workers to provide them jobs. This is a distortion.”

Lekh Nath Dahal, a member of the Public Accounts Committee, accused political parties of using the positions of advisors and experts to recruit their own cadres, thereby increasing wasteful expenditure.

“These matters have been raised in public, but since no formal complaints were filed in parliamentary committees, no discussions have been held,” he said.

The appointments of advisors by President Paudel and Vice-President Yadav highlight problems of nepotism, legal violations, and misuse of state funds. Instead of being based on merit, these appointments are made on personal closeness and political benefits, undermining the credibility of permanent state institutions.

Advisors turned into middlemen

The problem of “advisor distortion” has also spread into the Federal Parliament Secretariat, the very institution responsible for drafting laws. The 61st Annual Report of the Office of the Auditor General (2024) noted that the Federal Parliament Secretariat had appointed three communication experts without legal provisions under the Federal Parliament Secretariat Act. 

The Auditor General’s recent report also questioned the qualifications of private secretariat staff appointed by lawmakers. Last year alone, MPs hired 433 staff members, costing the state Rs 194.1 million.

When details of advisors and experts appointed in ministries were requested under the Right to Information Act, most ministries replied that none were appointed. Some, however, were found appointing close associates for one responsibility but using them for another. 

For example, Raj Bahadur Shahi, who handled press matters for Minister of Forests and Environment Ain Bahadur Shahi, was officially appointed in the ministry secretariat.

Former chair of the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee, Ramhari Khatiwada, stressed that at a time when revenue is insufficient to cover basic expenses, unnecessary spending must be curbed. “It is not only the President, Vice-President, and Prime Minister—every ministry, provincial governor, and chief minister has appointed press advisors and economic advisors. Public debt has exceeded Rs 2.6 trillion. We will hold discussions in the committee to stop such wasteful expenditure,” he said.

On November 8, 2019, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli instructed all his advisors to resign. At the time, his Chief Advisor Bishnu Rimal and Personal Secretary Rajesh Bajracharya were accused of being involved in various contracts and personal benefit schemes. Oli had also expressed dissatisfaction with the roles of his Foreign Affairs Advisor Rajan Bhattarai and Press Advisor Kundan Aryal.

From November 30 –December 2, 2018, the South Korea-based Christian missionary organization affiliated with the “Unification Church,” the Universal Peace Federation, held an Asia-Pacific Summit in Kathmandu. Prime Minister Oli’s participation and speech at the event drew controversy, later becoming infamous as the “Holy Wine Scandal.” At the time, Oli lashed out at all his advisors, claiming that poor protocol briefings had led him into the controversy.

When he fell ill, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli was also angered at his secretariat for not properly informing the public about his health condition. At that time, Oli immediately ordered all his advisors and experts to submit collective resignations. Interestingly, while all of them resigned as per the Prime Minister’s order, Oli only accepted the resignations of those he disliked—including Rajan Bhattarai and Kundan Aryal.

Despite the scandals, Bishnu Rimal, Rajesh Bajracharya, and IT expert Asghar Ali retained their positions and became even more powerful.

Ali, often in the news for allegedly misusing state power to secure major government IT contracts, is also a director of the digital wallet company eSewa. 

Currently, he serves as Oli’s unpaid IT advisor. Recently, his company Ambition Guru proposed online classes to then-Education Minister Bidya Bhattarai, who rejected the plan. Shortly afterward, following a fallout with PM Oli, Minister Bhattarai was forced to resign.

Bribery allegations against PM’s aide

In the fake Bhutanese refugee scandal, Keshav Dulal—who was arrested—claimed in his statement that he handed over Rs 10 million (one crore) to PM Oli’s personal secretary Rajesh Bajracharya. Despite such serious allegations, Bajracharya remains one of Oli’s closest aides.

By law, the government is supposed to rely on the Attorney General as its chief legal advisor. The Office of the Attorney General already has seven appointees, including Attorney General Ramesh Badal, deputy, associate, and assistant attorneys general. However, Oli appointed his fellow district native and former Attorney General Agni Prasad Kharel as his advisor on human rights and transitional justice.

Similarly, another associate from his district, Yuba Raj Khatiwada—who has alternated between serving as Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission and as Finance Minister—was appointed as Oli’s economic and development advisor.

In a parliamentary system, the Finance Minister himself is supposed to serve as the Prime Minister’s economic advisor. Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel, considered close to Oli, already played that role. Yet, another economic advisor was appointed, unnecessarily burdening the state treasury.

For the fiscal year 2025/26, the government allocated Rs 6.49 billion to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers. Out of this, nearly Rs 8 million annually is spent solely on advisors and experts.

In the long list of the Prime Minister’s advisors and experts, some are actually staff of other government bodies. They receive their salary from their parent office, but work at the Prime Minister’s Office. 

Authors Hari Bahadur Thapa and Kiran Bhandari, in their book ‘Political Maneuvering Inside the Bureaucracy’, note a growing tendency to appoint relatives, party workers, and people from one’s home district as personal assistants (PAs) or advisors rather than qualified experts. The book highlights how family members and kin of prime ministers and ministers often dominate governance.

Nepali Congress lawmaker Ramhari Khatiwada argues that middlemen have penetrated federal ministries and senior positions, and stresses that to reduce irregularities and leakages, the appointment of advisors must be brought into a transparent and legal framework. “The process itself is opaque,” he says. “Clear legal provisions are needed to fix this.”

Invisible advisors

Although most ministers have appointed advisors, few ministries list their names on official websites. For instance, Energy Minister Deepak Khadka has Amit Shrestha as his economic advisor and Sewak Pokharel as legal advisor. 

Labor Minister Sharat Singh Bhandari has appointed Yubaraj Basnet as an unpaid expert advisor. Health Minister Pradeep Paudel, on December 10, 2024, appointed Dr. Bhagawan Koirala, Dr. Sudha Sharma, and Raghu Kafle as unpaid advisors. Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel has Bhuwan KC as his press advisor.

Yet, when details of ministry-appointed advisors were sought under the Right to Information Act, most ministries replied that “no such appointments exist.” Some ministries even appointed individuals for one purpose but used them for another. 

For example, Forest Minister Ain Bahadur Shahi appointed his press aide Raj Bahadur Shahi as part of his secretariat.

Former Health Minister Pradeep Yadav also appointed printing businessman Avadhesh Kumar Das as his unpaid chief advisor. Despite having no link to the health sector, Das kept a nameplate next to the ministry secretary’s and issued orders to staff.

Without cabinet approval, he was even taken to Geneva for the World Health Assembly, sparking controversy.

Similar practices were seen with former Health Minister Mohan Bahadur Basnet and former Finance Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat, who appointed multiple “experts” under various titles. Currently, 22 federal ministers have appointed over 50 advisors, costing the state around Rs 50 million annually.

Deuba’s institutionalization of the practice

Though the trend of appointing advisors dates back to the Panchayat era, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba is seen as the one who institutionalized its misuse. When he first became PM in 1995, he expanded the secretariat and advisor structure to 46 people.

On returning to office in 2001 AD, he raised it to 88. Since then, the practice of appointing advisors for political patronage rather than merit has persisted.

After the 2006 People’s Movement, Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Baburam Bhattarai also flooded their secretariats with advisors in the name of governance reform. Others continued the trend. What once was limited to the central level has now spread to provinces and even local bodies since 2015.

Sociologist Dipesh Ghimire, who studies governance, notes, “Before 2006, only the PM and Communications Minister appointed press advisors. Now even ward chairs have them. The exploitation of state funds through advisors has trickled down to the local levels.”

Lack of legal standards and Supreme Court intervention

Most advisors and experts function outside the law, Ghimire points out. Since legal frameworks do not formally recognize them, paying salaries amounts to corruption. 

In 2016, advocates Kalpit Parajuli and Ananda Koirala filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court against such illegal appointments. The bench led by then Chief Justice Kalyan Shrestha ordered the government to explain and also instructed it not to appoint unnecessary advisors and aides. Yet, successive governments ignored the directive.

Former secretary Sharada Prasad Trital, who worked long in both the President’s and PM’s offices, says: “Beyond one or two, neither the President nor the Prime Minister needs advisors. Most are middlemen.” He claims advisors primarily pressure secretaries over transfers, promotions, and contracts, collude with corrupt officials to raise funds for political parties, and run broker networks within the system.

Past cases back his claim: Former Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa’s security advisor Indrajit Rai was implicated in the fake Bhutanese refugee scam. Similarly, former Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun’s foreign affairs advisor Jiban Kumar Gurung was arrested in 2024 for alleged involvement in gold smuggling. Most recently, the Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak’s secretariat faced controversy in the “visit visa scam.”

The spread to provinces

Koshi Province Chief Minister Hikmat Kumar Karki, by enacting a law, appointed three advisors — Rabi Khanal as Public Relations Advisor, Mohan Subedi as Economic Advisor, and Bikram Luintel as Press Advisor. 

Although there is no provision for ministers to keep advisors, then Social Development Minister Buddhi Kumar Rajbhandari, on May 18, 2023, had appointed Mingmar Gyaltzen Sherpa in the health and social sector, Khadga Narayan Shrestha in education, Dr. Jangmu Sherpa in women and public health, and Manbir Rai in social inclusion as unpaid expert advisors.

In Lumbini Province, Chief Minister Chet Narayan Acharya appointed Laxman Raj Gyawali as Political Advisor and Ram Bahadur Raut as Public Relations Advisor. He also appointed Ishwari Prasad Aryal as Economic Expert, Jivan Aryal as Infrastructure Expert, Yuvaraj Ghimire as Rural Development Expert, and Dal Bahadur Gurung as Education Expert. Dasharath Ghimire was appointed as Press Coordinator and Bishnu Prasad Ghimire as Photographer. In total, six people were appointed — four in the personal secretariat and two in the private secretariat.

In Madhesh Province, Chief Minister Satish Kumar Singh, on June 2, 2025, appointed Awadhesh Jha as Press Advisor. Previously, Anil Karna was serving as Press Advisor. 

Former Chief Minister Lalbabu Raut, on October 16, 2018, had appointed former Additional Inspector General of Police Bijay Lal Kayastha as Security Advisor. Then Speaker of the Provincial Assembly, Saroj Kumar Yadav, had appointed Sanjay Kumar Singh as Political Advisor, Prabhakar Singh as Press Advisor, and Raj Kishor Sah as Technical Expert.

In Bagmati Province, the Ministry of Youth and Sports appointed Deepak Shrestha as Sports Expert and Deepak Thapa as Sports Development Program Expert. Earlier, former Chief Minister Shalikram Jamkattel had appointed Devi Prasad Dhakal as his Political Advisor. 

In Gandaki Province, Narahari Sapkota was appointed as Press Coordinator based on a Cabinet decision.

In Karnali Province, Chief Minister Yam Lal Kandel has not made separate appointments of experts and advisors, but has appointed journalists and close associates in various posts within his secretariat. 

On November 2, 2021, after being appointed Chief Minister of Karnali, then Chief Minister Jeewan Bahadur Shahi had declared that he would not keep any advisors citing financial burden. However, within just seven months of making that declaration, on August 17, 2022, he appointed Yangjung Dolma Lama of his home district Humla as an Expert Advisor.

The 2020/21 report of the Auditor General mentioned that Karnali Province had illegally appointed advisors and disbursed 850,000 rupees in remuneration. This clearly shows that not only are rules and laws being ignored in the provinces, but even self-declared commitments are being forgotten, resulting in unnecessary expenditures.

In Sudurpaschim Province, Chief Minister Kamal Bahadur Shah appointed Dambar Bam as Press Advisor and Jitendra Upadhyay as Political Advisor.

Altogether, statistics show that the seven provinces have appointed more than 15 people as advisors and experts. They are provided salaries ranging from those of State Ministers to gazetted third-class officers. 

Based on this, more than 10 million rupees is being spent annually just on experts and advisors in the provinces. In addition to chief ministers, provincial heads (governors) have also been appointing journalists, party cadres, and relatives in various roles.

Distortion even down to the ward level, no one is accountable
On May 13, 2025, the 62nd report of the Auditor General made public pointed out that across the country, 152 local levels, by illegally appointing personal secretaries and advisors, paid 81.238 million rupees in remuneration.

The report mentioned, “In the Act on Facilities for Local Level Office Bearers and Members issued by the Provincial Assembly, there is no provision for office bearers to keep personal secretaries and advisors and pay them remuneration. Although according to the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration’s circular of March 9, 2021 it was stated that standards should be created and such expenditure should be recorded, it was seen that no such standards had been made.”

In the previous year’s 61st report too, it was mentioned that 171 local levels had appointed personal secretaries and advisors and spent 91.502 million rupees in remuneration.

The report of the Administrative Reform Recommendation Commission, 2013, led by Kashiraj Dahal, had given suggestions to the government, stating, “Do not make wasteful expenditure in government programs, and control the provision of keeping unnecessary advisors.” The government has not implemented that suggestion either.

On October 30, 2023, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority had sent a letter to all three levels of government, instructing them not to spend on unnecessary work, to implement the 22-point suggestion, and to provide information on it. 

The letter stated, “Creating procedures through ministerial decisions, establishing funds, expanding organizational structures and positions, as well as creating posts like private secretaries and advisors, among other substantive matters, thereby adding unnecessary expenditure, is not only against the law but such acts also result in misuse of public funds, therefore immediately stop them.”

Spokesperson of the Office of the Auditor General, Shrikumar Rai, says, “At present, in the name of experts, advisors, and private secretariats, distortion has spread from the upper levels to the lower levels. Every year we have been raising questions on this subject. In some places, appointments are made by creating laws. In some places, they are kept without laws. Instead of qualifications and capacity, the practice is to appoint relatives and party workers.”

How many people across the country have been appointed in the name of experts, advisors, and private secretaries, and how much expenditure is being made from the state treasury, even the Auditor General has not been able to produce a consolidated account of that. 

Spokesperson Rai says, “In some cases, people are appointed also under the names of private secretaries and others. If all details were to be collected, the expenditure could amount from hundreds of millions to billions of rupees.”

From the President and the Prime Minister down to ward chairpersons, the practice of appointing advisors by fixing monthly salaries for family members, relatives, and those with political closeness is an ugly picture of abuse of power and authority. 

It is a serious violation of the principle of public accountability. Such misuse of the Nepali people’s tax money is also contrary to democratic values and the principle of good governance.