KATHMANDU, MARCH 26

A total of 55 local levels have failed to comply with the provisions stated in the 'Local Level Institutional Capacity Self-evaluation Procedure', which requires the local governments to carry out self-evaluation of their overall performance every fiscal.

It aims to identify strengths and weaknesses of local governments through assessment of their performance and outcomes in a bid to make them competitive and more effective.

A press release issued by the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration yesterday said as many as 698 local levels had conducted self-evaluation and published the results for the fiscal 2020- 21. There are 753 local levels in the country.

Madhes Province tops the chart of local levels (22) failing to conduct self-evaluation.

Sudurpaschim is the only province where all 88 local levels have performed self-evaluation.

The thematic areas for self-evaluation of local units include governance arrangements, organisation and administration, annual budget and planning management, fiscal and financial management, public service delivery, judicial performance, physical infrastructure, social inclusion, environment protection and disaster management, and coordination and collaboration.

According to the MoFAGA, each of the thematic areas have separate indicators for self-evaluation. Maximum mark per indicator has been fixed at 1. Poor performance, moderate performance and excellent performance will get 0, 0.5 and 1 respectively.

'As per the procedure, it is mandatory for the local levels to complete their self-evaluation and publish the results through their respective websites and notice boards by the first week of Magh (before the end of December) each fiscal following the approval of the provision from the executive office. Similarly, the final results should be sent to the concerned district coordination committee, Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers of the province and the MoFAGA by mid-January of each fiscal,' the official said.

The concerned departments, divisions and sections are involved in self-evaluation of the thematic areas. The chief administrative officer designates a focal person, and the concerned departments, divisions and sections provide the results of the indicators determined for each thematic areas to the focal person.

Subsequently, the focal person consolidates the results of self-evaluation of the local level to the executive office chief administrative officer for approval before publication of results through the website and notice board.

The MoFAGA said it would prepare a consolidated report comprising the self-evaluation results of all 753 local levels and conduct capacity development programmes for local governments that yield poor results.

A version of this article appears in the print on March 27, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.