NA to send reply to SC on Army welfare fund soon

The Nepali Army (NA) has said that it will send reply to the Supreme Court (SC) regarding the transparency of the Army Welfare Fund soon.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Director of the Directorait of the Public Relation (DPR) of the NA, Brigadier General Anant Bahadur Thebe said that as the army is ready to follow the directives of the civilian government, it would send the reply to the SC soon.

He also claimed that the welfare fund of the NA is transparent and they are giving information about the income and expenditure of the fund to all the stakeholders through regular publication of the Army entitled “Army Order”.

Giving information about the welfare fund, Director of the Army Welfare Directorate, Brigadier General Kumar KC, informed that the fund has total reserve of 10,066,584,349 rupees at different banks and financial institutions.

He further said that the fund is getting 400 million rupees in interest from the reserve fund and getting 320 million rupees from the 12 percent contribution made by the soldiers serving UN peacekeeping missions from their allowances.

According to NA, the fund has three billion arrear at present.

Nepal started sending soldiers in UN peacekeeping missions from 1958 and so far 56,298 NA soldiers had served in the world body’s peacekeeping missions.

Currently 2,195 NA soldiers are serving in 14 different missions of the UN.

Speaking at the same programme, chief of the legal department of NA, Brigadier General BA Kumar Sharma informed that Nepal army had sent soldiers in UN missions without making formal contract in the initial days.

He informed that the NA started sending troops to UN peacekeeping mission after signing formal contract only from 1997.

The army has been facing charges of not making the army welfare fund transparent and not submitting contract between the UN and NA while sending NA soldiers to peacekeeping missions, to the court.

Commenting on the tripartite agreement among the government, Maoists and UN regarding arms and army management, Brigadier General Thebe said that as the NA is the part of the government, it is ready to follow all the directives given by the Nepal government.

He said the locking up of the weapons of the NA would depend on the locking up weapons of the Maoists in seven cantonments and 21 sub-cantonments.

He also made it clear that NA’s barracks are open at all times for the UN team for monitoring purpose and that the NA is ready to give any information demanded by the UN team.

In a first ever press conference following the latest political development of the country and after the parliament removed the King as the Supreme Commander in Chief of the Army, Thebe said that the Army is fully committed towards latest development of the country, adding, they are under the civilian government and ready to follow all the directives of the government. nepalnews.com pb Dec 11 06