Ministry of Labour and Transport Management accepts but unable to take penalise

Their rates are at least 25 per cent higher than the government fixed service fee for top five destinations and up to 16 times more for the job in Japan.

“Outsourcing agencies and their agents are charging more money, accepted director general at the Department of Foreign Employment Narendra Raj Sharma.

“But we can’t take any action to them because they didn’t issue voucher of the service fee,” he explained.

Ministry of Labour and Transport Management has fixed service fees for about two dozen countries and for some destinations. But out of the total 108 countries opened for foreign jobs to Nepalis, the ministry itself has not fixed the sevice fees for many destinations.

According to the ministry, service fees for popular destinations – Malaysia and Gulf countries – are Rs 80,000 and Rs 70,000 respectively. However, outsourcing agencies are charging around Rs 100,000 for Malaysia and Rs 90,000 for Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and others.

Outsourcing agencies working with Japan International Training Corporation Organisation (JITCO) are cheating more in service fee.

They are charging around Rs 800,000 for a job in J a p a n while the government rate is just Rs 50,000. The ministry has got some complaints on JITCO service fee also. “We are investigating the complaints,“ an officer at the ministry said, also assuring to punish the outsourcing agencies, if they were f o u n d guilty.

“Outsourcing agencies charging more service fees will be rem o v e d from JITCO list,“ he said.

O u t sourcing agencies involved in Canada and Poland are charging Rs 600,000 and Rs 400,000, respectively for the jobs that pay $2720 (Rs 212,000) and $400 (Rs 31,000) per month.

But the government rate for Canada is Rs 136,000 and Poland is Rs 80,400. According to an outsourcer, people are paying Rs 400,000 for Poland because they could enter other European countries from the visa. “People who want to enter Germany, Belgium and France prefer Poland,” he said.

But Nepal Association for Foreign Employment Agencies rejected the charges.

“Outsourcing agencies are not taking extra fee,“ president of the association Som Lal Bataju, defended, adding that there is possibility of charging extra fees in high earning countries.

“I have also heard about high service fee for Japan, Canada and Poland but the association has not got any proof yet,” he said, adding that the association will take action if found proof of charging extra fee than the government prescribed rate.

Meanwhile, the government has started to take action against those outsourcing agencies involved in the fraud in the initiation of Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai. The government has formed a taskforce led by Dr Ganesh Gurung to suggest policy measures to control foreign employment related fraud and make the business responsible and accountable.

Published on: 3 October 2011 | The Himalayan Times