April 26: Members of Parliament (MPs) have expressed differing views on the Corruption Prevention Bill, 2077 (First Amendment) during a theoretical discussion in parliament.

Lawmakers from the ruling party to the MPs of the main opposition parties protested against bill saying that the government has made an attempt to protect all the corrupt people by setting a statute of limitation of five years instead of providing life imprisonment for the perpetrators of corruption.

Chief Whip of CPN (UML) Padam Giri said that the First Amendment to the Prevention of Corruption Bill, 2077 must have a provision to bring the perpetrators of corruption under the scope of law and make them walk with their heads down. He expressed his displeasure that the bill has not have provision to confiscate the property of the corrupt.

“They are trying to have a provision that does not allow someone committing corruption of Rs 2 million to Rs 2 billion to stay in jail for more than 14 years,” said Giri, “It should have been life imprisonment.”

Ruling Nepali Congress MP Arjun Narsingh KC opposed the provision of 5-year time limit for prosecuting corruption cases as an attempt to protect the corrupt.

He said that the five-year limitation for corruption cannot be accepted under any circumstances.

“It was brought to save all corrupt people stating that corruption should be dealt with within five years or else they will be free to walk away. This is not possible under any circumstances," MP KC said.

In section 16 of the anti-corruption bill, it is mentioned that the time limit for prosecuting corruption-related offenses is five years from the date of discovery.

Regarding the five-year time limit, it is further written in the same section, “If a civil servant has committed corruption during his tenure in office and if he cannot be prosecuted immediately, regardless of the circumstances of his retirement, the date of his retirement and the fact that he became aware of the corruption after his retirement, the case can be tried within five years from the date when the corruption case is known.”

There is no statute of limitations for property embezzlement. It is said in that, “The bill does not have any statute of limitation for prosecuting corruption cases related to misappropriation of property owned or controlled by government or community organizations.”