Govt suspends foreign trips by its employees

Kathmandu / Feb 23: The prime minister’s office has directed secretaries of Nepal government to suspend planned junkets of government employees with immediate effect. On the instruction of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, the prime minister’s office on Thursday issued a circular to all ministries and departments concerned to cancel all overseas trips until further notice.

Following the decision, officials said trips involving around 350 officials that were in the pipeline have been cancelled.

“The decision was taken in view of growing misuse of foreign trips. Most of overseas trip have little or no benefit for the nation,” a senior official at the prime minister’s office said on condition of anonymity.

OPMCM officials said the suspension of planned visits will save around Rs 200 million. Officials said the government is mulling over introducing special measures to discourage unnecessary visits.

More than 6,000 government employees including security personnel participated in overseas visits in the last one year, according to officials. Those trips cost the government tens of millions of rupees, according to officials.