Search the Planet

Custom Search

9.22.2010

Politicization of Nepalese Bureaucracy

The bureaucracy in any country is regarded as permanent government. It continues its operation without politicians. Permanent in the sense that the tenure of the electorates is fixed only for some period, for example, five years but bureaucrats enjoy working more than that and after retirement of the same, younger generation replaces the old ones. The bureaucracy is selected mainly on merit basis. It should also be non-political organization.

For effective execution of public policy, mandated by legislative, political neutrality and impartiality is essential in the country. But in Nepal, bureaucracy is losing its norms and values. Bureaucrats run after the political leaders for personal benefit, not in the interest of public.
New government starts its job by transferring secretaries.
 Ministers want to get the secretary of their choice who has more or less political alliance with the minister's political faith. It makes the minister to allocate the budget, introduce plan, programme as per minister's own way and earn huge money through illegal activities. Every government or minister wants its 'own' secretary who does according to the minister's wishes. Transfer of civil servants without consent and consultation with the same is common and repeating.

In Nepal, only one neutral institution is Public Service Commission regarding bureaucracy. It bears the constitutional norms more than that of other organizations. Legislative has recently passed the Civil Service Act, 2049 and Civil Service Regulations, 2050 with some amendments. The most important criteria which are disputable among civil servants are promotion, transfer, nomination for study, training etc. In promotion system, there is no consistency when an officer from Auditing service becomes joint secretary, the officer from administrative group remains at the same position. The reality of Nepalese civil service is ironical. Evaluating the work performance is arbitrary and subjective. Manipulation in evaluation, erasing of marks are common. Nomination for study, training is not fair. The selection criteria are overlooked in this connection and biasness favours. There are no proper and perfect personal records in bureaucracy which is seen recently when Department of Health transferred health assistant from Mahottary to Manang district after six years the death of the person. In this situation, people can see that in every aspect of bureaucracy, there is more or less political favour. If one has link with minister, the person may transfer his/her post wherever the person wants.

The union seems working as party wings in the bureaucracy. It is being seen in some public enterprises. The fair practice of trade union rights has yet to be seen in the bureaucracy after the latest amendments in the civil service act and regulation.

Nepotism, favouritism, political interventions have been extremely circulated in the bureaucracy. The secretaries should act as guardians of the civil servants but they are busy in fulfilling the demands of political leaders and in turn, secretaries have interest to remain in the post. The intense political interference in appointment, placement, transfer etc. made civil service a political wing of the party which is in the government. This situation makes civil servants to take political party's flag. Salary is very low. There is no motivations and no incentives. Without other sources of income, the day-to-day living of large majority of civil servants is difficult. There is no clear cut work description in the bureaucracy. It should be noted that, among others, these factors create environment for best-qualified candidates selecting nongovernmental jobs.

Challenges
The civil servants are not rulers. There is no decency in conduct of the civil servants. Some politicians underestimating the civil servants and do not give space more than their personal assistants. A Paudel secretary at the Ministry of Information and Communications once said, "Political interference in bureaucracy crystal clear to all and this has affected the bureaucrats and whole nation".

Negative public perception about performance of bureaucracy should be abolished. Bureaucrats should know that politics is the career of political leaders. They should overlook the politics and maintain mutual relationship between bureaucracy and public. The deteriorating perception of people about civil servants should be strengthened.

Clear-cut demarcation between civil service and politicians is the need of time. Roles of ministers and secretaries should be well delineated. For effective implementation of laws regarding civil services, regular monitoring in this connection is desired. Since civil service is implementing body of the plan and programmes, adopted by the government, into action, it must be made fair and independent. Civil servant must be accountable to the government rather than on minister and political parties.

The bureaucracy should be more efficient, effective, responsible, transparent, consolidated and motivated. Without a professional civil service, there will be no effective service delivery. Every government hangs around its own political interest and has no any interest in the governance reform programmes. Hence timely delivery of services, facilities and justice is obstructed.

Share/Bookmark

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous22.9.10

    त्यस्तो छ है नेपाली कर्मचारीतन्त्र । सुधार कहिले होला त ।

    ReplyDelete

Wanna say-

Search This Blog