Do 22,000 Nepali civil servants receive secret payments from India?

Bhrikuti Rai / January 5, 2016

Nepal Workers and Peasants Party Chairman Narayanman Bijukchhe has time and again been claiming that about 22,000 high-ranking officials of Nepal Civil Service regularly receive secret payments from the Indian government.

On October 28, 2015, a news website quoted Bijukchhe as saying: “Despite being on Nepal government payroll, 22,000 civil servants ranging from officer to special class ranks receive payments from India. Due to those payments they are loyal to India so Nepalis are suffering.”

Click the following links for his statements:

http://www.nepalese.org/article/2015/10/28/31279/

http://www.annapurnapost.com/News.aspx/story/24445

http://ujyaaloonline.com/news/52014/?view=fullsite

South Asia Check asked Bijukchhe if the statements published by several communications media were his own. He said: “I simply stated what others have been saying about civil service officials. I did make the statement about 22,000 high-ranking officials which have now appeared in the media.”

South Asia Check attempted to examine Bijukchhe’s statement but couldn’t really find out a way to check whether any official receives secret payments from India, but we were able to find out the number of high-ranking staff (gazetted staff) in Nepal Civil Service.

According to a list prepared by the Ministry of General Administration in December 2015, the number of gazetted officials in Nepal stands at 20,537 including 14,473 in the civil service other than the health sector and 6,064 (officials from sixth to twelfth level) in the health sector. (See list)

Even if we assume that all these officials receive secret payments from India, the numbers do not add up to 22,000 as claimed by Bijukchhe. So his statement that Nepal’s 22,000 civil service officials receive salary from India is false.

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