Kathmandu, February 10
Fourteen employees of the Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers have remained absent without leave since Sunday. According to a source, the absentees include chief of the Economic Infrastructure Division Rameshwar Dangal, under-secretaries at the division Tara Nath Adhikari and Mukesh Regmi, accounts officer Narayan Prasad Nepal, officers Binod Gelal, Arjun Khadka, Ram Hari Neupane, Junu Bhattarai, Niranjan Shrestha, non-gazetted first-class officers Tukti Sherpa, Tirtha Raj Thapa Magar, Krishna Prasad Dhakal and driver Sri Hari Pudasaini.
In the wake of this absenteeism, OPMCM has started collecting information about these employees. The source suspected that these employees may have left for a junket for which a French company, which has won the tender for supplying national identity cards, is footing the bill. These employees will visit European countries like France and the Netherlands up till Monday, the source said.
Damodar Regmi, spokesperson for the OPMCM, admitted that the 14 employees have remained absent without leave. He said: We don’t know why they have remained absent.
Regmi pledged to take action against the wayward employees as per Civil Service Act and other relevant regulations.
