Kathmandu: It may be surprising, but the government has paid some teachers twice according to the report of Financial Comptroller General Office, which revealed that Rs 106.9 million was released from various District Education Offices for salary in the last fiscal year.

Multiple release of budget is regarded as financial indiscipline, but Director General of Department Of Education Mahashram Sharma acknowledged that in the absence of integrated data on teachers, the DEOs released the budget. “We have already retrieved around 67 million rupees in the account of revenue and our investigation is continuing,” added Sharma.

Teachers are paid every four months and in advance, allowing transferred teachers to claim their salary although they were paid from the place of transfer.

DEO of Gulmi Nanda Lal Paudel said the problem lies in bulk payment made every four months. “If payments were made each month with updated teachers’ profile, multiple payment would be checked,” added Paudel.

It was found that retiring teachers are paid in advance without updated information. This speaks of DEO inefficiency on the part of DEOs.

DoE is preparing database of teachers in all 75 districts. Sharma said all the DEOs have been instructed to prepare budgeting for teachers by mid-December and submit it to the DoE. The budget will then be released on the basis of information.

Financial indiscipline is rife in the education sector that has a budget of nearly 64 billion this year.

Nearly Rs six billion has accumulated because of financial indiscipline in the school education sector. DoE is collecting proof of expenditure to prove they were legitimate spending, but there has been no move to reduce indiscipline.

Source: The Himalayan Times,25 Nov 2011