KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 3
The parliamentary special committee on federalism implementation study and monitoring submitted its report today recommending that the government reduce the number of federal ministries to 15 and federal staff to half the present number.
In its 18-page recommendation, the committee led by National Assembly member Khim Lal Devkota, who himself is a federalism scholar, has stated that there is a need to slash the number of federal ministries as many responsibilities have been transferred to provincial and local governments and multiple commission have also recommended the need for the reduction of ministries.
The committee recommended that the reduction should be done by mid-July.
The committee also recommended that the number of provincial ministers should not be more than 10 per cent of the provincial assembly members and no less than five members. For this, a bill proposing to amend the constitution should be registered in the Parliament within one year.
In order to make the work of Inter-State Council led by the PM effective, a three-member working committee should be formed under the home minister and the meetings of this body should be held in three months so as to streamline the work of the Inter-State Council.
The parliamentary panel also recommended that the unbundling/detailing of list of exclusive and concurrent powers of the federation, provinces, and local levels provisioned in Schedule 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 of the constitution should be amended by mid-May as the current unbundling report did not clearly unbundle the task of the federal units.
The panel stated that federalism implementation work plan should be prepared by mid-February.
Other recommendations
• Formulate laws to make government employees accountable for their actions/non-actions by mid-July
• A high-level administrative reforms commission should be formed by mid-July under the prime minister to make bureaucracy attune to republican order and federalism
• Police adjustment should be done before mid-May
• Required number of employees should be deployed to provincial and local governments within one week
• Provision should be made to reduce federal employees by 50 per cent by mid-July
• Federal civil service act should be enacted by mid-July
• Government should ensure within one year that employees are recruited and promoted in local governments in accordance with provincial laws
• No unit of the government should establish parallel structures and if they have already done that, they should scrap such structures by mid-July
• New laws should ensure women's representation in major posts of local governments
• New laws should be enacted by mid-July to ensure inclusive representation of social groups that qualify for such representation, including Madhesis, Muslims, Janajatis, differently-abled people, and indigent people
• Laws should be enacted by mid-July to ensure that parties field at least 33 per cent women candidates under the firstpast-the-post parliamentary and provincial elections
• New laws should end ambiguity in powers of local and provincial governments related to mines and river materials under concurrent lists of powers
• New laws needed to ensure that all federal grants to provincial and local governments are provided in accordance with the National Natural Resources and Finance Commission
• No additional grants other than those listed in the constitution should be provided by the federal government to provincial and local governments
A version of this article appears in the print on November 4, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
