KATHMANDU, JUNE 12
Most of the local levels have failed to conduct capacity self-evaluation within the stipulated time and enter the results in the software prescribed by the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration.
As per the 'Local Level Institutional Capacity Self-evaluation Procedure, 2020', the local levels are required to complete their self-evaluation by mid-January of each fiscal.
However, of the 753 local levels, only 224 have managed to complete self-evaluation.
Joint Secretary Basanta Adhikari at the MoFAGA said the progress made by the local levels with regard to conducting their self-evaluation and publishing the results was dismal. "Only 224 local levels have met the deadline of self-evaluation, while 316 others have informed the MoFAGA about the preparation of final results of their self-evaluation," he said. Over 200 local units have yet to initiate their self-evaluation citing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recently, the MoFAGA had issued a circular to the local levels, directing them to abide by the law and complete their self-evaluation as soon as possible. The self-evaluation aims to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the local governments by assessing their work procedures and achievements in a bid to make them competitive. The MoFAGA has already approved the procedure, besides providing training to the concerned human resources at the provinces and mobilising them to facilitate the local governments in their capacity self-evaluation.
The thematic areas of self-evaluation of the local units include governance management, 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 procedure, each of the thematic areas will have separate indicators for self-evaluation. The score per indicator has been fixed at 1. Poor performance, moderate performance and excellent performance will get 0, 0.5 and 1 respectively.
The focal person of the local level concerned consolidates the results of self-evaluation of the government and submits it to the chief administrative officer. Then, the chief administrative officer presents the consolidated results of self-evaluation at the meeting of the executive, which is the final authority to determine the final results with scores before entering it in the software prescribed by the MoFAGA.
The MoFAGA prepares a consolidated report comprising self-evaluation results of all 753 local levels and conducts capacity development programmes for such local governments which are found to be delivering poor results.
The MoFAGA will officially declare the name of meritorious local levels and consider the results as the basis for fiscal transfer to the local governments.
A version of this article appears in the print on June 13, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
