Kathmandu, July 17:

Stating that the public administration has been under intense pressure from various quarters, State Minister for General Administration, Dharma Nath Prasad Shaha, today accused the Public Service Commission (PSC) of creating hurdles in the administration’s daily work.

“The Public Service Commission is not an independent body,” Shaha said, adding that the PSC created hurdles when the ministry called the Promotion Committee’s meeting several times. “It is always creating hurdles and the representatives of the PSC never attend meetings. This has stalled several decisions of the committee,” he said. He was briefing the State Affairs Committee on hurdles in the implementation of the declaration of the House of Representatives passed on May 18.

Shaha said it is hard to know who is running the civil administration and how. The state minister added that the civil administration is working impartially and that some of the civil servants have always been given chances to work in urban areas and some have always been sent to remote districts. He said a panel of secretaries was formed today by the cabinet which would look into what can be done for officials of the royal palace as the House has scrapped the royal palace service. “The committee would submit its report within 30 days,” he said. He, however, said it would be inappropriate to bring those officials in the civil administration.

The secretary of the ministry, Madhav Ghimire, said a fresh act would be brought for the civil service as “it seems there are legal vacuums after the Civil Service Act Amendment Ordinance 2005 expired on June 30.” The amendment had scrapped several provisions of the Civil Service Act 1992.

Ghimire said the government would recruit fresh graduates in high posts to make the civil administration more dynamic. Ghimire added no peons and drivers would be hired in the civil service from now on and the government would take the services of retired civil servants.

He further urged the government to make a demarcation between politics and bureaucracy.