Nepal’s newly formed Asset Investigation Commission has received more than 250 complaints against high-ranking government and public officials in just two weeks, as the country’s most sweeping accountability exercise in recent memory gets underway. Around a thousand government employees are visiting the commission’s office daily to submit mandatory asset disclosures, with spokesperson Ganesh KC noting that footfall is heaviest in the morning hours.
The complaints, submitted both in person and via email, arrive in sealed envelopes and will be opened and reviewed over the coming weeks. KC confirmed that while individuals are filing complaints alongside their own asset disclosures, the identities of those named cannot be confirmed until the envelopes are unsealed. “As all of them are sealed, it is not possible to say who has filed complaints against whom,” he said.
The commission’s reach is broad. It covers approximately 50,000 individuals including former prime ministers, cabinet ministers, members of parliament, constitutional body chiefs, judges at all levels, and senior security personnel from both Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force. Former Chief Justice Prakashman Singh Raut was among those who personally visited the office to collect an asset detail form, a sign that even the highest echelons of the judiciary are taking the process seriously, albeit with some hesitation. A retired judge, speaking anonymously, said former judges are in discussions about whether to comply, citing confusion over their inclusion in the commission’s scope.
In the first phase, the commission is collecting asset details covering the period from mid-July 2005 through mid-April 2026. Officials who entered government service before that window are required to submit records from the date they joined. A public notice was issued in late May calling on all those within scope to submit details of their own and their family’s assets within one month, with a deadline falling on June 13, 2026. The commission has not yet specified what action will follow for those who miss the deadline.
For officials currently abroad, the commission has made provisions to submit asset details within two weeks of returning to Nepal, with prior notification via email. In a second phase, the investigation will be extended further back to cover the period from 1991 onwards.
With hundreds of complaints already in hand and thousands more disclosures pouring in, the commission’s work is only just beginning — but the scale of public response suggests that appetite for accountability, at least for now, runs deep.
