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Nepal - Recruitment firms resist regulation on transparency

02 March 2015

Foreign employment agencies have disregarded the new provision that requires them to conduct all their financial transactions through banks according to The Katmandu Post.

Officials working at the frontline desk of the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) said none of the recruiting firms have complied to the new regulation introduced on January 16 to promote ethical and transparent recruitment practice as directed by the Parliamentary Committee on Labour and International Affairs.

According to the sources, State Minister Tek Bahadur Gurung and DoFE Director General Bharat Subedi are backing the recruiting firm in their non-compliance. It is said that Gurung had no intention of enforcing the regulation and that he only approved the provision to avoid the wrath of the parliamentary committee.

The International Affairs and Labour Committee of the Parliament on November had asked the government to bring all transaction of foreign recruitment agencies under proper banking channel. The committee has also launched investigation into financial irregularities prevalent in the foreign employment sector.

DoFE receives hundreds of fraud cases every month relating to financial exploitation of migrant workers from recruiting agencies, registered and unregistered agents. Over five hundreds cases involving fraud worth millions of rupees were registered last month alone.

Officials at Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA) said the decision has been suspended following continuous lobby. Several NAFEA delegations had visited Gurung and Subedi to stop the new provision.

Badri Karki, DoFE spokesperson, said that his office has not stepped back from the decision."The department is committed to bring this provision into effect. I don't know why it has not come into implementation yet," he said.