The government agencies will face shortage of around 20,000 staff even after the adjustment of the existing human resources recruited by the federal government and the erstwhile local governments.

According to the Ministry Federal Affairs and General Administration, there are 89,847 government jobs, including more than 2,000 vacant ones, registered at the Department of Civil Personnel Records. Around 17,200 staff are permanent employees hired by the erstwhile local governments.  This puts the total number of existing staff to be adjusted at more than 107,000.

But the total seats maintained for the three tiers of the government as per the latest Organisation and Management (O&M) survey is 125,792. “This means even after the adjustment process, the government agencies in three tiers of the government will face shortage of human resources,” said Suresh Adhikari, spokesperson at the ministry.  He, however, said that the adjustment would help fill the maximum vacant seats, particularly in the offices under the provincial and local governments.

The federal government has initiated the staff adjustment process after the Ordinance on Civil Servant Adjustment was published in the Nepal Gazette on December 9.

On December 11, the ministry instructed the chief administrative officers at local units to give a letter of adjustment to the locally recruited staff within 10 days.

The ministry has also asked the government offices to update the details of the civil servants while also calling on the civil servants to update their personal details at the Department of Civil Personnel Records within 15 days. Employee transfer has also been halted to facilitate the staff adjustment process.

According to the ministry, the seven provinces need 21,399 staff as per the latest O&M survey. But the federal government has supplied just 12,351 employees.

During the Inter-State Council meeting held on December 9-10, the chief ministers of all seven provinces had complained to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli that human resources crunch had affected the normal service delivery of provincial government agencies.

The federal government has mobilised 29,577 staff at the local level. With an additional 17,200 staff, the number of employees at the local level has reached nearly 47,000 government.