Bhadra Sharma

Labour and Employment Minister Kumar Belbase on Saturday tendered his resignation to the Prime Minister Office following PM Baburam Bhattarai’s directive to that effect. 

A day after the media made public videotape recordings of Minister Belbase asking for bribes in exchange for the registration of foreign employment companies, PM Bhattarai on Saturday telephoned and directed the minister to instantly resign. Aide to the PM, Ganga Shrestha, confirmed that Belbase, who was on his way to Arghakhanchi, sent his resignation by fax.

During the conversation, the PM is said to have asked Belbase to tender his resignation within 24 hours of issuing the directive. “If he does not voluntarily resign by Sunday, the PM will be forced to sack him from his position,” said the PM’s political advisor, Devendra Poudel. 

Immediately after the release of the tapes, the PM had asked Belbase’s party chief, CP Mainali of the CPN-ML, to ask Belbase to quit. The PM told Mainali that there was no alternative to stepping down as minister after his involvement in bribery became public. However, Mainali refused to take any disciplinary action arguing that Belbase was not directly involved in corruption and his conversation with representatives of overseas employment companies were not “offensive.” 

The CPN-ML has instead suspended Belbase’s aide and the party’s central committee member, Bhaskar Kafle, claiming that his role in the conversation was “condemnable and unethical.” 

On Saturday, the media disclosed recordings of Belbase in his office demanding Rs 250,000 from nine overseas employment agencies to register them as foreign employment companies. Representatives from the agencies had been summoned to Belbase’s office to negotiate the bribe amount. 

Belbase was attempting to allow registration by taking bribes despite the government’s ruling last year to halt the registration process owing to the lack of proper monitoring and burgeoning irregularities in the foreign employment sector. 

Even after the government halted registration, a total of 59 foreign employment companies had applied for registration at the ministry and Minister Belbase had assured them of registration if they submitted certain amount of money towards the “construction of party office.”