Nepal has been adopting the decentralization principle as a national policy reform especially
after re-establishment of democracy in 1990s. The main aim of decentralization
is to distribute the benefits of development equally to all the citizens in the country
who are marginalized, excluded and deprived of their social, political and economic
rights. Towards this end, the local bodies- District Development Committees, Municipalities
and Village Development Committees- were reformed and empowered
with social, administrative and financial authorities so that they can generate the revenues
and utilize in their development cause to the extent possible on participatory basis.
The Local Self Governance Act, 1999 and Local Self Governance Regulations
along with the guidelines have delegated the authorities and responsibilities to these
local bodies. As Village Development Committees are the immediate government to
the local people, it has vital role in promoting participatory governance and community
development as well as bridging the local people to the central. Recognizing the
vital role of the Village Development Committees in the delivery of goods and services,
government has been providing grants from mid 1990s to them and the amount
of grant has been increased up to 3 million now from 0.3 million in the beginning.
Currently, the local bodies are headed by the government employees such as Local
Development Officer as District Development Committee head, Executive Officer as
Municipality head and Secretary (grassroot level officer in bureaucracy) as Village Development
Committee head in absence of elected councillors for over a decade. Frequent
transfers of the Village Development Committee Secretaries and political vacuum
in the Local Bodies have led to higher levels of dominance of disorganized local
politics in the utilization of funds.