500 bureaucrats deployed in all provinces

Kathmandu, January 31

Service seekers will have to wait for one more year to avail the benefits of decentralisation, as the government is likely to take one more year to adjust civil servants in all the three levels of governance.

As per the draft Civil Servants Adjustment Regulation, on which the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs has been sitting for the past two months, an Organisational and Management Survey Committee led by a former secretary will be formed to recommend the modality for civil servants’ adjustment.

The committee will recommend after six months of groundwork the service areas, organisational structures and the number of employees at local, provincial and federal levels.

On top of that, arrangement of necessary physical infrastructure for smooth functioning of local, provincial and federal governments will take more time.

“Without the endorsement of the regulation, the survey committee cannot be formed; and without the committee, the study to ascertain the needs and availability of resources cannot be conducted,” Spokesperson for the Ministry of General Administration Shiva Ram Neupane told THT. “We have made temporary adjustment, but for permanent adjustment, the regulation should be endorsed at the earliest.”

According to Neupane, the ministry has deployed 500 civil servants in all seven provinces as a temporary measure for the functioning of the offices of governors, chief ministers and provincial cabinets and secretariats of provincial assemblies. “This number is far from sufficient, but we took the decision considering infrastructure constraints,” he said.

The government has decided to deploy 21 civil servants to fulfil 23 responsibilities in each of the seven offices of provincial chief ministers, 41 civil servants with 41 responsibilities in each of the provincial ministries for internal affairs and law, 18 civil servants with 24 responsibilities in ministries for economic affairs and planning, 24 civil servants with 22 responsibilities in ministries for physical infrastructure development, 30 civil servants with 58 responsibilities in ministries of social development, 29 civil servants with 62 responsibilities in ministries for industry, tourism, forest and environment and 21 civil servants with 32 responsibilities in ministries for land management, agriculture and cooperatives.

In each of the seven provincial assembly secretariats, 27 civil servants have been deployed apart from four experts deputed by the Federal Parliament Secretariat for the functioning of provincial assemblies.

“We have drafted separate civil servants acts for federal, provincial and local units, and are awaiting endorsement from the federal Parliament,” said Neupane.

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