Suryanath Upadhayay, head honcho at the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has for the second time pointed out the propensity of the state to dole out cash to politicians and has asked the government to go slow. In the last 10 months of fiscal 2000, government handed out about Rs 100 million to politicians and their cronies-including former chief justice Biswonath Upadhyaya, politicos Mohammad Aftab Alam, Ananda Prasad Dhungana and spouse, Gajendra Narayan Singh, Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, Raghuji Panta, Dr Bansidhar Mishra, among others, and also journalist groups including the Editor's Society, the Reporters Club and the Nepal Journalists Federation. The money was given out as "financial assistance", "donation" or "reward"-for reasons that are never transparent. The CIAA has warned that it would have to examine accounts if the practice is not stopped.