Kathmandu, November 22:

The Maoist-led government, in tune with what is called the republican and federal order,

has initiated work to transform bureaucracy.

“Public administration will get a new shape and life within a year,” said Minister for General Administration Pampha Bhusal.

The newly formed Commission for Administrative Restructuring (CAR), headed by the minister

started its work today, with the stated aim of transforming the public administration to make it pro-people, transparent, accountable and professional.

“The CAR will give preliminary recommendations for an immediate effect, so that the people feel a change in service delivery. The CAR will recommend the government further, on a periodic basis, and implementations will be made accordingly,” Bhusal told The Himalayan Times.

“When a complete outline of the public administration is prepared, in line with the federal structure, it will be implemented on a long-term basis,” Minister Bhusal said.

“We want to bring about a radical change in public administration, to mark the historical political change in the country,” the minister said. A bureaucracy able to meet people’s expectations in the changed political context was the need of the hour, she added.

The CAR will also coordinate with the yet-to-be-formed State Restructuring Commission.

Minister Bhusal said bureaucracy in the past could not be effective due to feudal political structure. “Lack of accountability and rampant corruption made the public administration ineffective,” she added. Asked about the politicisation in the bureaucracy, she said, “We will prepare a mechanism where the government employees will be free to adopt a preferred ideology, provided that they practise professionalism in their work.”

Meanwhile, the CAR formed on Wednesday held its first meeting today at Singha Durbar in the presence of Chief Secretary Bhoj Raj Ghimire.

The CAR will determine the duties of different ministries, governmental and semi-governmental agencies, recruitment and retirement of government employees, Secretary Bhusal said. The structure of service delivery in health sector, education system and police administration will also be restructured, he added.

“We have a mandate to restructure and redesign the public administration, excluding

judiciary, legislature, Nepal Army and Armed Police Force,” Bhusal said.

The CAR is learnt to first specify its working procedure and then go for reviewing the ongoing bureaucracy, consulting concerned experts. The commission has a mandate to call any government official for suggestions.

Former secretary Achyut Bahadur Rajbhandari, who is also a CAR member, said the commission would work for making the government machinery effective, economical and democratic. “Lack of a regular monitoring mechanism, the decade-long conflict and ignorance of past governments in giving continuity to good programmes and renouncing bad ones introduced by their predecessors are the major causes of our ineffective bureaucracy,” Rajbhandari said.