Anti-graft mechanisms ineffective: Regmi

Government chairman tells a programme that the judiciary played good role in combating 
corruption in the country

Addressing a programme on "International anti-corruption conference on building foundations of integrity: national and international experiences" here, Regmi, who is still the Chief Justice despite being made the head of government, said, "There are grievances from the people that the anti-corruption efforts have been lacklustre, while the mechanisms against corruption are ineffective."

According to him, the level of trust in the judiciary has increased significantly in recent days.

"It is evident in the past few years that there has been an effective approach from the judiciary in adjudicating corruption," Regmi said.

He added that the judiciary has became the "place for people's faith."

Ram Krishna Regmi, who is involved in conducting the 'National Integrity Context and System Analysis (NICSA), however, said the independency of judiciary was severely affected after Regmi became the head of executive and the legislature while also holding the top judiciary post.

Transparency International (TI) Nepal has recently entered into an agreement with the TI secretariat to conduct a two-year NICSA in Nepal as part of a South Asian study.

"Public trust on the courts was adversely affected because of the CJ-led government and issues raised over the linkage of recent appointment of judges with the High-level Political Committee's power sharing game," Krishna Regmi told the programme.

The TI-Nepal is organising the two-day programme with a view to "consolidating experiences" related to the fight against corruption in various parts of the world.

Anti-corruption experts from Bhutan, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, among other countries, are attending the conference.

At the inaugural session on Thursday, chairman of TI-Nepal Bishu Bahadur KC urged the government to fill vacant positions in the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority, the National Human Rights Commission and the National Information Commission within 30 days.

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