KATHMANDU, MARCH 17
The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration has directed all the local levels to carry out their financial and administrative responsibilities in line with the Local Government Operations Act, 2017.
As per Section 84 of the act, a chief administrative officer is deputed to each local unit by the MoFAGA. The local levels are required to follow specified procedures while carrying out financial and administrative responsibilities unless a CAO is deputed. The local levels are obliged to abide by the same procedures until the date of attendance of the new CAO after transfer of the previous one.
The MoFAGA recently issued a circular to the local levels to strictly comply with the prevailing procedures after some of them were found to be involved in spending funds indiscriminately by assigning responsibilities to unauthorised employees during the absence of the CAO. "The local governments are directed to assign the responsibilities of acting CAO to the senior-most employee for carrying out financial and administrative responsibilities when the post of CAO becomes vacant for more than 15 days. The decision on such an assignment needs to be made by the executive office and sent to the MoFAGA for approval, along with supporting documents," the circular reads.
The MoFAGA warned that any financial and administrative activities conducted by or through a junior employee as acting CAO would be deemed invalid. "If the CAO assigned by the MoFAGA is not entertained by any local level and continues to assign financial and administrative responsibilities to the acting ones, it will also be considered unlawful," it added.
A version of this article appears in the print on March 18, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
