30 June, Kathmandu. In time, the government has failed to reduce unnecessary posts from federal commissions, secretariats and agencies, including the ministries within the lion’s palace. The reduction of posts in the federal ministries and agencies, which has not been announced many times, will not be possible even in the current financial year.
Through the budget statement of the current fiscal year 2080/81, the government had announced that the Organization and Management Survey (O&M Survey) of all ministries and agencies would be conducted by November 2080. However, even as the financial year is coming to an end, most of the ministries and agencies are stuck in the survey process.
Officials of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Council of Ministers, who are perplexed by the cutbacks in the agencies in the capital city, accept the centralized mentality of employees who want to stay in Kathmandu as much as possible. The survey committees formed under the leadership of the employees have not worked well.
The budget of the current financial year had announced that the existing structure and posts of public administration would be reviewed and streamlined. “Related ministries and agencies must complete the organization and management survey within the month of November of the next financial year,” the budget statement said.
Most of the ministries and agencies did not succeed in completing the review of the posts on time as per the announcement to cut the public expenditure by reducing the unnecessary posts and make the public administration agile. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda’s job-cutting campaign, which started from the Prime Minister’s Office to streamline personnel administration and government mechanisms, has now stalled.
What happened, what didn’t happen?
So far, the new organizational structure has been approved only for some agencies under the Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare and the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.
The Prime Minister’s Office has cut the posts of 68 employees, including 2 secretaries, while the Women’s and Children’s Ministry has abolished the Women’s and Children’s Department.
The government has already decided to establish ‘one municipality, one post office’ and abolish 1,636 posts under the postal service. The Ministry of Communication has also created additional technical posts for National Information Technology Center, Disaster Recovery Center and National Cyber Security Center in Savik.
Other ministries and agencies have not taken much action when they see that they have to cut posts. Most of the divisions, departments and offices of the ministries and government agencies have asked for more manpower saying that the current manpower is not enough.
Due to the increased demand for technical posts, the ministries have come to the conclusion that even if administrative posts are cut, a large number of posts cannot be cut.
The government has made a rule to bring the organization structure on an appropriate basis (right sizing) based on the work area, work load, nature of work and financial capacity. For O&M, ministries are working by forming committees and sub-committees at the departmental level. According to the Ministry of General Administration, many department level sub-committees have given reports.
Now the O&M survey report of the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration has been prepared and has reached the Council of Ministers and is stuck. The Ministry has proposed to cut the posts of only about 20 employees. Currently, there are 172 posts in the ministry. It is also going to create a post of about 12 people including one person Sui in the Ministry of General Administration to establish a division to run some of the projects that are being conducted through the Local Infrastructure Department taken to the Ministry of Urban Development.
According to Deputy Secretary of Federal Affairs and General Administration, Rupnarayan Khatiwada, according to the O&M survey report of the Ministry of Urban Development, Ministry of Water Supply, Office of the President, Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, the proposal to review the posts has reached the Ministry of Finance for approval. “Due to the pressure of budget-related work, the Ministry of Finance may not have been able to give its opinion on time,” he said.
Along with the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, Industry, Commerce and Supply, Foreign Affairs, Labor Employment and Social Security, Forestry and Environment, Agriculture and Livestock Development, Culture Tourism and Civil Aviation, Youth and Sports are working by forming a committee for organization and management survey.
The Public Procurement Monitoring Office, the Federal Parliament Secretariat, the National Planning Commission, the Election Commission, the National Inclusion Commission, the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority and the Office of the President have also formed a committee to conduct a survey. “Employees who have been working in committees in some ministries have been transferred,” he said, “Now the rest of the work will be done quickly.”
Everyone has their own interests
According to the officials, due to the change of power coalition last February, new ministers have arrived and new secretaries have arrived in most of the ministries.
Because of the previous coalition government’s agenda, the new ministers have not shown much interest in reducing the staff from Singha Durbar. Since new teams have been formed in the ministry, the employees have not prioritized it.
According to the sources, the trade union of the employees has also increased the pressure saying that the posts of employees should not be cut from Singha Durbar. There is still confusion about the post which is said to be cut from Singhadbar till November 2080 under various pretexts.
The employees have been complaining that the government has put more pressure on cutting posts than on ‘right sizing’. The preliminary conclusion of the surveys of all the ministries and agencies is that even if other administrative posts are cut, there will be no major changes in the organization as there is a need to increase the posts of information technology-related manpower.
Moreover, the O&M committees of the ministry are involved in various self-interested issues of the employees. The joint secretaries are in political lobbying as much as possible not to reduce the posts of secretary level from Singh Darbar. The deputy secretaries are also trying to stop the post of joint secretaries in the capital from being cut.
The employees who are expecting to be promoted to secretary in the near future have been pressing not to cut the posts of the promoted posts during the Organization and Management (O&M) survey of the ministries. Due to this, the O&M of ministries with 2 secretaries has become more complicated.
If the government keeps only one secretary of all the ministries, there will be a reduction of 7 posts in specific categories. However, the joint secretaries are putting pressure on the O&M committee to reduce this number as much as possible. The senior secretaries have insisted on this because they will not get the opportunity to be promoted if the posts of secretaries are reduced.
Umesh Mainali, the former chairman of the Public Service Commission, says that if the number of secretaries is reduced, the chances of promotion of joint secretaries will be reduced, so he advocates having more secretaries.
‘This is not a good practice, the number of ministries should be reduced as much as possible, but it is sad that the position of the secretary cannot be reduced’, he said.
He said that the posts should be maintained on the basis of needs and proprieties and not on the interests of the employees. “There is a saying that it is better to have one bad general than two good generals”, Mainali, who is also a former secretary, said, “It is appropriate to have only one secretary to create a healthy working environment in the ministries.”
Highness in the lion palace
Due to the accumulation of employees in Singha Darbar, the posts of employees from the state and local level unions are vacant. As the Ministry of Federal Affairs is unable to appoint a Chief Administrative Officer, more than 200 local levels are being run by Chief Administrative Officers. Some of the district level offices of the union have not been staffed according to the pressure.
In this way, when the job cuts are confused, the employees inside the Singha Darbar are very happy. On June 6, 118 employees were sacked when 4 ministries of Singh Darbar were sanctioned. On that day, 32 employees did not come to the office without accepting leave, 78 employees did not attend the office on time, and 4 employees were not found in the office room.
In the monitoring of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, such malpractices are not less than others.
Last January 10th, 222 employees in 4 agencies of Singha Darbar went on strike in one day. When Vigilance Center visited the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration, the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction and the Department of Archeology, 78 employees were absent. 71 employees were found to have come to the office later than the scheduled time, while 53 employees were not found in the office.
There is less work pressure for the employees in the ministries and agencies within the Singha Darbar. It has been found that employees do not come to the office when there is no work, they come late even when they come, and when they do come, they stay idle.
Officials of the Vigilance Center say that this situation has arisen due to the delay in cutting the posts of the employees who have gathered at Singh Darbar. An official of the vigilance center said that the internal control system within the ministries is also weak, so the employees are always in a vacation mood.
“Even when a large number of employees are found absent in the ministries, it means that there are unnecessary employees,” said the official, “but those who use political administrative power to prevent unnecessary job cuts are the employees who do not want to leave the palace.”
