February 7: From now on, the law will soon consider those who take up the responsibility for any development project and delay the work as criminals.

A parliamentary committee has passed the Monitoring and Evaluation Bill introduced by the government to regulate the contractors at a time when the development work in the country is taking place at a snail’s pace.

This bill proposes criminalizing the employees and contractors who engage in fraudulent activities in construction projects. Those who are found involved in misappropriation will be punished according to the criminal law once the bill is passed by the parliament.

The government had introduced the bill four years ago to make the monitoring and evaluation of the country's development works and plans more effective. The State Order and Good Governance Committee meeting held at Singh Durbar on Tuesday passed the bill recommending strict provisions.

"We have unanimously passed the bill which originated in the National Assembly to regulate monitoring and evaluation," Committee Chairman Ramhari Khatiwada said in a conversation with New Business Age, adding, “Now we can tame anyone including project chiefs, contractors, office chiefs, government or minister involved in dilly-dallying development works.”

According to Khatiwada, fraudulent ativities has been considered a crime in the bill. The committee has passed the bill with the provision that the government agency can initiate action under the criminal code. According to Khatiwada, this bill will be presented in the upcoming session of parliament. So far, the state does not consider the delay in development and construction works as a crime.

In the bill passed by the committee with amendments, there is a provision to monitor and evaluate the projects every six months. The bill has provision for regular monitoring and evaluation of the schemes run by all three levels of government.

The Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers and the National Planning Commission are considered as the highest bodies for monitoring and evaluation at all three levels. According to the provisions of the Bill, the National Planning Commission shall approve the periodical plans, master plans, annual plans, projects of national pride, national priority projects, transformative projects, important projects designated by the Government of Nepal, projects operated with foreign aid and projects operated with grants provided to the provinces and local levels and monitor and evaluate them in accordance with the prevailing laws.

The bill states that the monitoring and evaluation report of the province should be made available if requested by the National Planning Commission.

The bill stipulates that rural municipalities and municipalities should regularly monitor and evaluate plans implemented at the local level. There is also a provision that the local level report should be provided if requested by the National Planning Commission.

This bill was introduced by the government four years ago but it could not move forward due to various reasons. This bill, which will be presented in the upcoming session of parliament, will go into the implementation stage after it is passed by the House of Representatives.