Kathmandu, March 28

Government staff of certain offices get motivation allowance so that they do their best to meet performance targets and serve the people.

But the provision has drawn flak, as there is no mechanism to monitor allowance-linked performance and there is no visible progress in service delivery.

In fact many government offices, including land revenue offices, that do not get motivation allowance are in dire need for it, as they directly deal with service seekers and have becomes hubs of dilly-dallying, bribery and malpractices.

According to finance ministry’s Joint Secretary Ram Sharan Pudasaini, Rs 140 billion is spent per annum from the state coffers on five lakh government staffers. Of this, approximately Rs 1.5 billion is spent per annum towards motivation allowance.

The allowance can be up to 100 per cent of the salaries of the staffers and the percentage differs from office to office. In some offices it may differ from staffer to staffer, depending on their performance.

Revenue offices, Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, Parliamentary Secretariat, National Vigilance Centre, Commission of Investigation of Abuse of Authority, Public Procurement Monitoring Office, District Treasury Controller Office, courts, National Reconstruction Authority and Office of Attorney General are among the offices that get motivation allowance. Cabinet decides the quantum of such allowance.

The government spends Rs 400 to 500 million per annum on motivation allowance for staffers of revenue offices, who get allowance equivalent to up to 100 per cent of their salaries, according to Laxman Aryal, chief of revenue division of the Ministry of Finance.

Employees of the PM’s office get motivation allowance equivalent to up to 50 per cent of their salary on the basis of their performance.

The office spends Rs 22 million towards motivation allowance and Rs 55 million towards salary and other allowances annually, according to section officer in the PM’s office Narayan Nepal.

Some 250 staffers of the Parliament Secretariat get 80 per cent of their salaries as promotional allowance, according to the secretariat’s spokesperson Bharat Raj Gautam. “All staffers get same allowance.

No indicators have been set to distribute the allowance on the basis of performance of individuals,” he said.

Spokesperson for Ministry of General Administration Kamal Prasad Bhattarai said the justification behind the motivation allowance needed to be studied, as there was no monitoring mechanism and no uniformity in distributing the allowance.

Former chief secretary Leelamani Paudyal said the motivation allowance was neither justified nor based on performance. Rather, the existing system de-motivates the staffers, as those who are not making any extra effort too are getting the allowance, Paudyal said.

“The allowance is supposed to be based on nature and burden of work and performance. But the money has been distributed without setting any indicator of performance.

It should be provided to certain staffers, and not certain offices, on the basis of his/her performance and productivity,” said another former chief secretary Bimal Koirala.

Former finance secretary Krishna Hari Banskota said the incentive system would be supportive if it could be used for increasing productivity.

For instance, the revenue collection increased by 33 per cent, breaking the past record when the government decided to provide 200 per cent allowance to staffers when Baburam Bhattarai was finance minister, he said.

High-Level Administration Reform Suggestion Committee headed by Kanshi Raj Dahal has, in its report, also recommended to the government to make the allowance performance-based.