These days Minister for Tourism, Culture and Civil Aviation Prem Bahadur Ale seems to be the busiest official in the Sher Bahadur Deuba Cabinet.

Inspection of various sites has become his daily routine. Sometimes he is seen at airports giving instructions to officials there and oftentimes at the Narayanhiti Palace Museum, where a land lease deal has fallen into controversy.

Ale, who represents a newly formed party led by Madhav Kumar Nepal after splitting the CPN-UML, is the only minister who spends most of his time visiting sites instead of doing his job as a minister to develop effective policies to ensure that things are executed well.

Though Ale has attracted some praise from the public as well for “his actions”, almost all of which are streamed live on social media, experts on governance and observers say publicity stunts are not what ministers are supposed to be doing and that they should instead be focussing on developing better policies and implementing them.

Former prime minister Nepal, who chairs the CPN (Unified Socialist), defends Ale’s antics saying ministers should work like Ale.

When Nepal was praising Ale, another minister representing his party, Ram Kumari Jhakri was inspecting the Dhobikhola corridor and giving instructions to officials, featured widely on social media.

Jhakri, who developed her career from student politics, is currently the minister for urban development.

This is not the first time that the ministers are doing such publicity stunts in Nepal. There were several such ministers in the past who took such an approach to draw public attention. Previous minister for urban development Krishna Gopal Shrestha had visited the same Dhobikhola corridor on November 20, 2020 walking the streets on foot with media persons taking his footage.

Earlier, the then energy minister Gokarna Bista also gained public attention when he climbed electricity poles to snap the lines of those who had not paid their bills, while another industry minister in the erstwhile KP Sharma Oli government, Lekhraj Bhatta, had also visited different places in the name of market monitoring–a job done by the monitors at the ministry where the minister’s involvement brought about no substantial change.

Instead, according to observers, he could have focused on developing an effective policy that could have ensured some changes in taming market prices.

According to leaders and observers some of the ministers have been trying to seek media attention forgetting their actual duties and responsibilities and at times they have been taking law into their own hands.

During one of his visits to the Narayanhiti Palace Museum, Minister Ale had even directed officials to demolish a few structures that were erected by a business group after a controversial land lease deal with the previous government, although he should have done so by following due legal process.

Not only Ale and Jhakri, but Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Krishna Kumar Shrestha has also been visiting various offices followed by TV cameras and journalists in the name of solving the problems of migrant labourers.

Leaders are wondering why only the ministers of the CPN (Unified Socialist) are engaged in such publicity stunts. Some ministers said the newly formed party is in a bid to attract public attention by doing some pro-people activities because the elections are nearing.

Former bureaucrats have also questioned whether the ministers take their duties and responsibilities seriously and wondered if they are making fun of their dignified positions.

“Respectable ministers going down to the level of street cleaners could give the message that there is no need of any civil servants including ward officials upto the secretaries of the ministries,” said Sharada Prasad Trital, a former secretary. “Actually there are separate planning and monitoring divisions at every ministry to accomplish what some ministers have been doing.”

Trital, who was involved in preparing the report on Lalita Niwas land grab scam that has also implicated former Prime Minister Madhav Nepal, said the government could make lots of achievements only if the ministers developed implementable policies and programmes and effectively coordinated for their proper implementation.

He said their job is to make all the mechanisms under them responsible and dynamic and hold serious discussions at the problem-resolving committees of their respective ministries regarding the problems, and resolve them immediately with the help of the authorities concerned.

But Minister Ale believes that monitoring the sites is his duty as a minister and he has just been carrying out his duty.

“Some people have called me a stunt minister. This is not a stunt. This is my duty as a minister,” Minister Ale had said at a press meet organised at his ministry.

Trital, the former secretary who had also drafted an ‘integrity policy’ in 2017 during Deuba's previous government that could not come into implementation, also said the government cannot run properly with its top officials engaging in ludicrous stunts.

Section 9 (1) of the Good Governance Management and Operations Act 2008 states that the responsibility of a minister–in addition to the responsibilities mentioned in the constitution and other laws in force–shall be to perform or cause to perform the entire jobs to be carried out by the Ministry under his/her responsibility including the policy matters. Its sub-section 2 says, without prejudice to the provision of Sub-section (1), the minister concerned may give necessary instructions to the officials of his/her Ministry and its subordinate units; and it shall be the duty of the officials concerned to follow the instructions.

Ministers should focus on strengthening the existing system and if there is a lack of a system they should develop one and use the organisation and the system to ensure things are working properly, according to former bureaucrats.

Another former secretary Rameshore Khanal also said there is a system in place and the ministers should operate it to resolve issues instead of engaging in publicity stunts with the help of some YouTubers.

“Who will take up those issues after the ministers are ousted,” said Khanal, the former finance secretary. “The job of the ministers is to improve governance by maintaining and strengthening the system.”

He said there are so many beautiful cities in the world but their ministers are not seen in the streets mending things.

But CPN (Unified Socialist) spokesperson Jagannath Khatiwada said taking bold decisions on certain issues could boost the public profile of a minister, but the tendency of seeking attention in every step cannot be justified.

“We are also concerned about the way some of our ministers are trying to draw public attention,” Khatiwada told the Post. “Our party has been studying the activities of all our ministers.”

But some former bureaucrats said the newly formed party is in dire need of funds to run the party and finance the upcoming elections and the stunts could also be a part of their scheme to collect some cash.

“I think minister Ale has done a few positive actions to show to the people but most of his other works seems to have a hidden agenda,” said a former secretary asking not to be named. “There were ministers earlier who used to do these sorts of stunts during the day and bargain for bribes in the evening.”