freedom1 Forum filed an application at the Finance Ministry seeking detailed information about the commercial firms that evaded Value Added Tax (VAT) from the Ministry as per the existing Right to Information Act on May 18, 2011. After the information officer in the ministry did not provide the name list of VAT evaders within 15 days of application, the freedom1 Forum made the first appeal to the Secretary at the Ministry for this on June 9, 2011 as per the Right to Information Act. If the Secretary too denies information to the freedom1 Forum within a week, it is to move to the National Information Commission. The freedom1 Forum is of the opinion that it is peoples’ right to information, so the intentional fraud worth billions should be exposed and the evaders brought to book. The VAT fraud is the largest financial irregularity in the last one decade due to lack of transparency. The finance secretary had resigned three months ago after a heated debate between the secretary and finance minister regarding this very fraud. Similarly, the freedom1 Forum has filed application in the Constituent Assembly (CA) Parliament Secretariat on May 27, 2011 seeking detailed information about the meeting of the CA attendance record of the CA members, number of sessions, names and types of bills passed by the parliament, name of the CA members visiting foreign countries with the name of the countries the programmes they attended, allowance and other facilities provided to CA members, and expenses of the CA during three years period.
Freedom Forum is a prominent non-governmental organization in Nepal dedicated to institutionalizing democracy, protecting and promoting human rights, press freedom, freedom of expression, right to information, promoting audit accountability, open and accountable budget, public finance reforms, citizen engagement in public finance management and citizen participation in audit. Established in February 2005, the organization emerged in response to the political turmoil following Former King Gyanendra’s coup dated February 1, 2005, which imposed severe restrictions on media and democratic rights. A group of media professionals, legal experts, and academics founded Freedom Forum to safeguard Nepal’s hard-earned democratic freedoms during this repressive period.
