Kathmandu, November 8

The government will be able to fully adjust civil servants in the three tiers of the government — local, provincial and federal — only after one year.

Local elections held in three phases have already elected office bearers in all 753 local levels and they are supposed to deliver all kinds of services to the service seekers.

Provincial and federal governments will also need full-fledged bureaucracy after provincial and parliamentary elections slated for November 26 and December 7.

If adjustments are not made on time, these bodies will not be able to deliver services effectively.

“It may take the government a year to finalise adjustment of civil servants,” said Spokesperson for the Ministry of General Administration Shiva Ram Neupane.

According to a draft of Civil Servants Adjustment Regulation, which the MoGA has sent to the Ministry of Finance for approval, within 30 days the government will form a survey committee under a former secretary that will work out the adjustment process.

This committee will recommend, among other things, the structure and the number of civil servants needed in the three tiers of the government.

MoGA sources said the government would have to endorse the regulation before forming a survey committee which could take two months.  The committee will have to submit its report to the government within six months.

The regulation draft is with the finance ministry for approval. “We hope to receive it within a week and send it to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs for approval,” said Neupane.

Only then the MoGA will send the regulation to the Cabinet for approval.

According to Neupane, MoGA had drafted the regulation after consulting the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Development within 15 days after the president authenticated the Civil Servants Adjustment Bill. The regulation was drafted on the basis of this law.

The survey committee will analyse the details of all 86,000 employees, their seniority, their service period, postings and their preferences, said Neupane.

In the committee, five members will be appointed from among first class officers serving in administration, engineering, agriculture, forest, and health streams. One joint secretary from the finance ministry, MoLJPA and MoGA will also be appointed in the committee. The member secretary of the committee will be MoGA’s joint secretary.  The committee can invite experts, if necessary. It can make the action plan itself.

The MoGA has already asked all ministries to provide details of employees. “If anybody does not want to be adjusted to the province and local levels, they can opt for voluntary retirement scheme,” Neupane added.

The newly-enacted Civil Servants Adjustment Act has set criteria for adjustment, including seniority, permanent address and the employee’s preference.

The regulation has allocated 10 services in provinces, including statistics, engineering, agriculture, justice, administration, forest, education and health services for government employees’ adjustment.

Government employees under the agriculture service group will work on horticulture, fisheries, agronomy, plant pathology, social science, plant science, plant disease, seed and kit science. Likewise, livestock, poultry, dairy development and veterinary are under the livestock service group.

In the engineering services, there are seven sub-service groups, including electrical, mechanical, mining, chemical, survey, chemistry and agro-irrigation.