The offices dealing with passports, citizenship, survey, land revenue, driving license, foreign employment are the ones that see hordes of service seekers daily, who must stand in a long serpentine queue as they wait patiently for their turn
MARCH 5
Had the directives worked, then those Nepali citizens living abroad would have been ensured of their right to vote in the recent election as the Supreme Court had issued a show-cause notice in the name of the Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers and the ministers concerned on May 4, 2017 to ensure the migrants' right to vote.
As soon as a government is formed, the favourite gambit of the newly-appointed authorities is to give directives to various departments regarding the deeply-rooted perennial problems. As witnessed in the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government also, he and his ministers are competing with each other in giving directives to various departments to speed up service delivery. With the passing of time, it has been noticed that such directives are nothing but a farce, a mere publicity stunt.
For changes to happen in public goods and service delivery, along with the times, it requires a strong command at the policy level and good control over the bureaucracy. A leader has to be farsighted enough to formulate a working policy and create a mechanism for smooth and effective functioning rather than involving the bureaucrats through hasty instructions, which are likely to turn dud in no time.
For these purposes, the National Vigilance Centre is assigned to carry out inspections of such anomalies so that the government can formulate plans and policies to rectify the problem, but the government does not seem to align with the centre.
The biggest problem faced by the service seekers at the government offices is red tape as there are too few counters catering to too many services seekers.
What adds to the agony is that they have to visit multiple sub-departments assigned under different window openings to get one job done. With dilly dallying at its peak, mere directives without proper homework are not going to yield good results. Though some offices have introduced a computerised and manual token system, it has not helped much to shorten the average time to get a job done.
On a positive note, one healthy initiation was taken by then Minister of General Administration Lal Babu Pandit in 2014, who introduced a policy to provide services stretching over two shifts - from 6 am to midday and from noon to 6 pm - at some government offices with a huge workload. This was a perfect example to match supply and demand, although this could not continue for long.
Nevertheless, the banking sector in the country is doing an impressive job to curb the excessive traffic of service seekers by introducing the electronic payment system, and also by installing ATMs, some of which also accept cash deposits, round the clock.
The offices dealing with passports, citizenship, survey, land revenue, driving license, foreign employment are the ones that see hordes of service seekers daily, who must stand in along serpentine queue as they wait patiently for their turn. This is happening due to lack of human resources and policy-level flaws in the bureaucracy. These things cannot be changed just by giving directives as it requires a strong policy capable of changing the whole course of action.
For this, a single gate way to the services as adopted in many countries can be implemented, for which the whole physical infrastructure of the offices needs to change.
In the USA, attaining a driver's license is a cakewalk.
The service charter of all the required documents can be accessed on the website, or the service seekers can get help by calling the associates in verifying all the documents necessary for avoiding a wasted trip. With all the documents handy, with an assigned schedule, the service seeker goes to a 'single gateway counter' where he is taken fully care of - in terms of taking photographs, biometrics, validating documents, receiving payments, all by a single associate. Some states print the license card instantly whereas others dispatch it within a few days via mail.
For this process in Nepal, one has to go to multiple windows, and the payment has to be deposited in the bank counters that can be accessed through the narrow openings of window panes, which only accept cash. The bank voucher again has to be handed over at another window after standing in a long queue to fetch the flimsy receipt which works as a temporary license.
Even after the ordeal, one has to wait for almost two years to get the permanent license by going to the office, which takes almost half a day. Once again, the assigned counters and personnel do not align with the theory of supply and demand. Finding the license, at times, is like finding a needle in a haystack due to haphazard record keeping. The provision of dispatching the license by mail has not yet been mulled over as some of the cities are still in their alpha stage in labelling their alleys, streets and lanes.
The same hassle of visiting various windows takes place while renewing one's vehicular license. Though license renewal can be done through some online platforms, again the service seekers have to visit in person the Transport Management Office to validate the amount and the process by attaining the signature of the concerned officer by standing in a long line, which eventually brings the hassle back to square one.
To do away with these problems, Nepal could install kiosks. In India, kiosks are deployed in the post offices, government offices and other public areas for providing fast and reliable service. Civil registry procedures, declaration of a stolen or lost ID or passport, ID or passport application, online tax declaration, payment of taxes, fines, utility bills, and many more are done through the kiosks.
Rather than giving directives, the government should work on building policies that will curb the problem in the long run.
A version of this article appears in the print on March 6, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
