I understand that the Nepal Embassy in Washington DC spends about 20-30 lakhs of rupees in cocktail and dinner parties every year, and in Dasain party alone, the expenditures run as high as 4 lakhs rupees. Most of the cocktail and dinner parties are neither for diplomats nor to gain any diplomatic edge for Nepal but for visiting dignitaries and friends from Nepal and for selected chamchas and pankhas.
It is a shame that the Embassy of a poor country like ours does not practice austerity particularly at a time when the country is passing through a critical period.
I have the following suggestions to maintain austerity:
a)Do away with a non-functional, inconsequential and ceremonial post of the Military Attach? at the Embassy and, thus, save around 40 lakhs every year.
b)The Ambassador be made to prepare a report (and send it to the Foreign Ministry) for each dinner party or get together that has been thrown with the Nepali janata money in which he should include what was (or to be) gained by having that party, total costs of the function, and a list of guests who attended it. Just to say that the function was done to maintain a simple PR for the country should no longer be acceptable. Hopefully, when we have the parliament some day, a subcommittee will have access to review such reports submitted by the Embassies so that the peoples? representatives can ask questions if they suspect of any anomalies beyond that is detected by the auditors.
b)For the Embassy organized Dasain party, why not collect a minimal set fee per person (regardless of age) which should be given to a charity in Nepal. The people living in the US or any foreign country for that matter deserve no free lunch when there are people in Nepal dying of starvation and lack of medicines.
Raise your hand if you are willing to donate the costs of your lunch to a charity for a hospital. A special meal can be given to those in hospital patients for a day (during festivals) with the funds raised from such event.
Happy Dasain!
