The government will have to mobilise an additional 16,080 staff at the local level to fill the vacancies determined by the Cabinet on Wednesday in an interim arrangement.
The government will have to mobilise an additional 16,080 staff at the local level to fill the vacancies determined by the Cabinet on Wednesday in an interim arrangement.
As many as 21,716 officials have been serving at the local federal units. These include civil servants recruited by the erstwhile local bodies, those mobilised by the local offices of the central administrative bodies and the Centre, according to the Ministry Federal Affairs and General Administration.
The Cabinet has approved a total of 37,257 seats for the local units—rural municipalities, municipalities and District Coordination Committees. Staff quotas for the local offices of the federal government such as Agriculture Service Centre, Livestock Service Centre, Health Posts and Ayurved Centre have been determined at 19,558. This means a total of 57,354 government staff will be at the local offices for the interim period.
Amid complaints from the local governments about the lack of adequate staff, the government approved the interim seats for the local units and other offices to be stationed at the local level.
“We’re preparing letters to send to various ministries seeking deployment of their staffers to the local level immediately as required,” said Rudra Singh Tamang, spokesperson for the General Administration Ministry. “Probably, the letters will be dispatched on Sunday.”
He said the government expected to mobilise officials on the seats determined by the Cabinet by the end of the current fiscal year.
However, those being deployed to the local level will not be posted permanently. The government, which is conducting an organisation and management (O&M) survey, will first determine the actual number of staff for every office that will remain under the centre, provincial governments and local governments.
The Cabinet, which formed the O&M Survey Committee headed by ministry Secretary Shankar Prasad Koirala on March 14, has authorised the committee to undertake the task within six months. It has already completed the O&M survey at the central ministries.
The government will next go for a staff readjustment process. Government workers will be adjusted at the local level permanently through the staff adjustment process, said Tamang.
According to Prem Rai, secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office, only 30-32 percent civil servants will work at the Centre, followed by 15-20 percent in provincial governments.
Interim government staff seats
Local level Number Govt staff
Rural Municipalities with population up to 25,00033410,216
Rural municipalities with population over 25,0001265,044
Municipalities with population up to 25,000311,393
Municipalities with population of 25,000 to 50,0001519,453
Municipalities with population of 50,000 to 75,000685,139
Municipalities with population over 75,000262,138
Sub-metropolis 111,860
Metropolis outside federal capital 51,649
Metropolis within federal capital 1365
District Coordination Committees 77539
Total83037,796
Officials to be deployed to local office from the centre 19,558
Prithvi Man Shrestha is a political reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering the governance-related issues including corruption and irregularities in the government machinery. Before joining The Kathmandu Post in 2009, he worked at nepalnews.com and Rising Nepal primarily covering the issues of political and economic affairs for three years.
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