KATHMANDU, MARCH 25

The National Vigilance Centre said it wrote to the concerned body for disciplinary action against 1,439 civil servants, who were found to be violating dress code and playing truant during surprise inspection and monitoring.

According to the annual report (2020-21) of the anti-corruption watchdog recently submitted to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, some civil servants continue to breach the existing legal provisions, which they are required to comply with compulsorily. The concerned body of the government employees have been told to initiate action against unruly civil servants in accordance with the Civil Service Act-1993. Similarly, it requires them to book other staffers as per the act or regulation related to employee management. According to Section 55(A) of the act, if any civil servant is not punctual or becomes reckless, the supervisor concerned may give such an employee warning and maintain records regarding it in the sheet roll/personal details file of the employee concerned.

Several civil servants and other staffers were also found absent during duty hours without leave and violating the dress code during surprise monitoring and inspection carried out by the NVC in various government offices. As many as 841 employees were found absent from their respective offices, while 598 had not donned the prescribed uniform during office hours. The monitoring and inspection were conducted in 126 office on sampling basis. The NVC also carries out regular follow-up to check whether or not the offices take action against absent civil servants.

The number of unruly and undisciplined civil servants is just a tip of the iceberg.

The NVC, which is under the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, is mandated to establish good governance and control corruption. It may be noted that the government provides Rs 9,000 per annum to each civil servant as uniform allowance. The policy was introduced in 2012 to help service-seekers recognise them and maintain uniformity in dress.

Male civil servants are required to wear daura suruwal, coat or dark blue suit with white shirt and tie, while female civil servants need to wear shirt and pant or saree-blouse or kurta-salwar of dark blue colour.

A version of this article appears in the print on March 26, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.