‘It has for sure provided us extra energy to continue our campaign for rights’
An investigation by a Nepalese government agency has refuted allegations of corruption at the country’s largest LGBTI group.
The Social Welfare Council (SWC) has released a report that rebutted charges of corruption and irregularities leveled against the Blue Diamond Society (BDS) and founder Sunil Pant.
The allegations were made two years ago and resulted in the group losing its license as well as funding gaps and the demoralization of its 750 full-time staff who were not paid for more than seven months.
The group’s license was reinstated in June but this is the first time one of several investigations into the allegations has for released to the public.
Pant said the charges were ‘clearly politically motivated.’
‘The charges of corruption were filed not in one or two authorities but nine authorities altogether,’ he told GSN.
‘All those government agencies who investigated have closed down the files after they did not find any corruption at BDS but the SWC is the only authority actually releasing the report of their investigation on BDS.
‘Nice of them that BDS, at least, has something in hand, now, to show when people, still, may speculate about the baseless charges.’
He added, ‘We probably will never pin-point, for sure, the true face or force behind all these problems that was brought to BDS but dangerous trend of ‘defaming’ going on in Nepal against NGOs and Activists generally.’
Blue Diamond Society welcomed the report.
‘The report has eased the way to expand the plans and programs of BDS by mentioning that if such programs were have been stuck at SWC and other agencies due to the allegations, the block should be cleared now,’ the group’s president, Sanjib Gurung, and acting executive director, Suben Dhakai, said in a statement.
‘It has for sure provided us extra energy to continue our campaign for rights.’
by Darren Wee
Source – Gay Star News
