There is nobody at Kharpunath Rural Municipality of Humla district to certify the documents related to civil registration such as birth, death, marriage, divorce and migration, after the only ward secretary at the local body was transferred to another rural municipality.

Until recently, Purna Singh Budha had been handling the task of all five wards of this rural municipality. Now his departure is affecting all the wards.

“Budha’s departure has particularly affected the tasks related to civil registration,” complained Rural Municipality Chairperson Karna Bahadur Rawal.

Furthermore, the federal government also recently transferred the chief executive officer, Chandra Bir Shahi, but the rural municipality would not let him go until a replacement arrives.

There are only two government officials at the office of rural municipality out of the 28 sanctioned posts and none in the wards, according to Rawal. So the rural municipality has recruited five sub-engineers for its office and five assistants at its five wards on contract basis.

Kharpunath has been facing staff shortage ever since the rural municipality was formed nearly three years ago.

Rawal is hopeful that the rural municipality will get some relief once the Public Service Commission sends new recruits. “We are awaiting the arrival of new recruits from the Public Service Commission,” he said.

According to the National Association of Rural Municipalities in Nepal, an umbrella body of rural municipalities, more than 1,800 wards out of the 3,201 rural municipalities in the country are without secretaries at present.

There is also an acute shortage of other staff, particularly on the technical side, at the offices of both the rural municipalities and their wards, making service delivery difficult, the officer-bearers of the association say.

Most of the rural municipalities have recruited staff on contract basis to run their offices. “We are just hoping that the staff recruitment process through the Public Service Commission gets completed soon. It will ease the situation to a large extent,” said Menaka Kafle, deputy chairperson of the association.

With the local governments facing staff shortages for long, the commission went ahead with recruiting 9,161 staffers at 515 local levels at the request of the federal government. The move resulted in strong protests from the provincial governments as they argued it is a breach of their jurisdictions.

The failure of the Public Service Commission to ensure 45 percent reservation for marginalised communities, including women from among the 9,161 new recruits, also invited strong criticism from these groups and Madhes-based political parties. The local governments largely remained mum over the issue.

When the issue reached the Supreme Court, it gave a go-ahead to the recruitment plans on July 1. After conducting written exams, the Public Service Commission is now publishing the results. As of now, the commission has completed publishing the results of written exams for section officer posts.

“We are starting interviews from November 7 of those candidates who passed the written exams,” said the commission’s Chairman, Umesh Mainali. “We will start recommending the selected names for recruitment, four [or] five days after the interviews.”

The commission plans to continue publishing the results of written exams and conducting interviews simultaneously. It aims to complete its job by February next year.