MINIMUM CAPITAL TEMPERATURE 3 DEGREES CELSIUS Kathmandu, 14 Feb.: Minimum temperature in the capital Thursday is expected to fall to 3 degrees Celsius. The temperature was 6 degrees Celsius at 8 in the morning. Mercury is expected to rise to 18 degrees Celsius in the afternoon on a clear day. Nnnn HIMALAYAN SHERPA, SHANKATA MEET IN SIMARA GOLD CUP SEMI-FINAL Kathmandu, 14 Feb.: Himalayan Sherpa plays Shankata in the second semi-final of the Simara Gold Cup in Simara Thursday. Thursday’s winner will meet MMC in the final. nnnn NC KEEPS OPTIONS OPEN FOR PM POST Kathmandu, 14 Feb.:: Showing drastic flexibility over its position on nominating leadership of the new government, the major opposition party Nepali Congress (NC)´s central working committee meeting on Wednesday decided to keep all options open in this regard, Republica reports.. The party decided to agree on formation of an election government even under the leadership of sitting chief justice if formation of such a coalition creates grounds for holding fresh election to the Constituent Assembly by May and doesn´t undermine the basic democratic principle of the separation of powers. “Today´s [Wednesday] meeting unanimously decided to agree on formation of a government even under the leadership of sitting chief justice if such a move wouldn´t undermine the basic democratic principle of the separation of powers, constitutional supremacy and judicial independence,” NC Spokesperson Dilendra Prasad Badu told Republica. “But there must be an arrangement so that such a move will not undermine separation of powers.” Another leader explained that such an arrangement is to make the sitting chief justice tender his resignation from the post prior to assuming the post of prime minister. The meeting entrusted the party´s three top leaders -- party president Sushil Koirala, Sher Bahadur Deuba and Ram Chandra Paudel -- with the responsibility of holding talks with other political parties on behalf of the party on formation of a national consensus government. Stating that over 95 percent of those who aired their views during the deliberations were strongly against forming a government under the leadership of the sitting chief justice, NC leader Shekhar Koirala said that the party can´t accept the sitting chief justice as the prime minister. He said NC is still for Koirala´s candidacy but decided to keep other options open as well. Formation of a new government under the leadership of a political leader or a neutral candidate, who is not currently affiliated to any political organization are among the other options. Previously NC had proposed president Koirala as the prime ministerial candidate from the party. The opposition alliance of nine political parties including the CPN-UML had supported Koirala´s candidacy. An overwhelming majority of members at the CPN-UML´s central committee meeting urged the party leadership to reject the idea of forming a government led by the sitting chief justice and pressed the top brass to lobby for a leadership by a political party. Ruling UCPN (Maoist) last week had floated the proposal to form an election government under the leadership of sitting chief justice. Nnnn CAPITAL SPENDING FAILS TO CATCH UP Kathmandu, 14 Feb.: The government´s capital expenditure failed to pick up even till the end of seven months of the current fiscal year to February 11, as only 20 percent of the budget allocated for the purpose was used till the period, Rupak D. Sharma writes in Republica.. The country´s capital spending hovered at Rs 10.28 billion in the seven-month period, according to data provided by the Financial Comptroller General´s Office. This is one fifth of Rs 51.34 billion allocated for the purpose this fiscal year. The inability to fully utilize funds allocated for capital expenditure has, on one hand, affected development works, which is likely to hit this year´s economic growth, while on the other put a strain on banking sector´s liquidity, as a large portion of revenue collected by the government is locked up in state coffers. Although the government´s capital expenditure had stood at around 14 percent of annual allocation of Rs 72 billion in the seven-month period of last fiscal year, it had later picked up. That history is unlikely to repeat this year as the government cannot spend more than what was spent last year because of lack of full budget. This problem has led to lower allocation of funds for many projects. For instance, the Rural Drinking Water Project, which had sought Rs 9 billion this year, was only extended spending ceiling of Rs 3 billion. “Because of such problems, many ministries are not interested in implementing projects,” a high-ranking official of the Ministry of Finance told Republica. “On top of this, ministries have been asked to chart out capital spending plans after separating enough funds for salary and other recurrent expenditure.” Worse, new projects cannot be introduced this fiscal year, which means the government´s spending capacity is further constrained. “Things are not looking up so far, as only 80 percent of total government-funded projects has sought final approval for implementation,” Gopi Nath Mainali, joint secretary of the National Planning Commission (NPC), told Republica. As per the rule, all Priority One (P1) projects - which comprise 283 major projects - need NPC´s approval prior to implementation. Once the green signal is extended, concerned ministry then initiates the bidding process, if necessary. “As per the ongoing practice, projects that have received NPC approval will take at least a month to start the tender process if they are essential. This means implementation process of many projects will commence only in mid-March if things are put on fast track,” Mainali said. Although a government guideline makes it mandatory for all ministries to obtain project implementation approval from the NPC within 15 days of receiving spending authority from the Ministry of Finance, not all follow the rule. This year, the process was further delayed as spending authority was extended after four months into the fiscal year due to delay in endorsement of the budget ordinance. As these problems delayed project approval process, the practice of seeking transfers by officials deputed to planning and monitoring divisions of ministries created further problems. “Many government staff members do not want to remain for long in these divisions as they are not considered plum posts,” Mainali said. “This not only affects project approval process but project implementation and capital spending as well.” nnnn