The government has amended the ministries' business rules and reduced the number of federal ministries to 18 from 21. Likewise, the government also assigned more authority to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

According to the new business rules, the Intelligence Department, the country’s premier intelligence-gathering unit, has been brought under the purview of the Prime Minister's Office. It had only been shifted from the PMO to the Home Ministry a few months ago.

In March 2018, the former prime minister KP Oli had brought the Intelligence Department under the purview of the PMO from the home ministry and the decision had sparked controversy. In addition, Oli had also brought the Department of Money Laundering Investigation and the Revenue Investigation Department under his direct supervision.

On September 25, the previous government led by Sushila Karki returned the Intelligence Department to the Home Ministry. During the Gen Z movement, the role of the intelligence department came into question.

Ganesh Adhikari, former chief of the Intelligence Department, said the decision to bring the department under the purview of the executive head is a welcome step.

“It should be under the purview of the prime minister. Many countries across the world have practised the same,” he said.

Adhikari said that when the Intelligence Department is placed under the Home Ministry, its functioning tends to remain confined within the ministry’s mandate, limiting its broader effectiveness. He argued that the department’s core role is to serve national security and the wider national interest, a focus that aligns more closely with the Prime Minister’s Office. Bringing it under the PMO, he added, would ensure the prime minister has direct access to intelligence inputs, enabling quicker transmission of critical information and faster decision-making. In contrast, retaining it under the Home Ministry can delay the flow of important intelligence, according to Adhikari.

“There is also a possibility of information being twisted or manipulated as it passes through the home minister to the prime minister. Political leaders may also use information and institutions to serve their own interests,” he said.

In most cases, particularly in India and China, intelligence units are placed under the purview of the head of government.

The intelligence department has been facing criticism that political party leaders and the prime minister appear to use the intelligence agency less for the state and more as a strategic tool to gather and use information to stay in power.

In addition to bringing the Intelligence Department under the Prime Minister’s Office, a Cabinet meeting on Thursday decided to limit the number of federal ministries to 18. According to a statement issued by the prime minister’s private secretariat, the move aims to promote administrative reform and fiscal discipline, cut unnecessary recurrent expenditure, and make government performance more efficient and streamlined.

According to Dipa Dahal, press and research expert at the prime minister’s secretariat, the government has retained Finance; Home; Foreign Affairs; Defense; and Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs as they were. Similarly, the Ministries of Industry, Commerce and Supplies; Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation; and Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation remain unchanged. Prioritising technology and innovation, the government has separated Science and Technology functions from the former Ministry of Education and created a new Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation to oversee innovation-related activities.

There has been a major restructuring of other ministries, with those handling similar functions merged together. Accordingly, the new lineup includes the Ministry of Education and Sports, Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Youth, Labor, and Employment, and Ministry of Land, Cooperatives, and Human Resources. Likewise, the Ministry of Women, Children, Gender and Sexual Minorities, and Social Security, Ministry of Health and Food Security, Ministry of Infrastructure Development, and Ministry of Agriculture, Forests, and Environment have been formed.

The government has also transferred information technology functions earlier handled by the former Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers.

Although the number of federal ministries has been reduced from 22 to 18, officials say it is still unclear how much money and resources the move will actually save the state.

“We are conducting an organisation and management survey of each ministry, and the report will probably come only after about a month and a half,” a senior official at the Ministry of General Administration told The Post. “Only then can we conclude how many civil service posts will be reduced. The entire restructuring of the civil service is underway and we are in the process of downsizing it,” the official added.

The plan to review the number of ministries for administrative reform and expenditure reduction was proposed under the “100-point Government Reform Agenda”, released immediately after the formation of the new government.

Dahal said the splitting, renaming, and merging of ministries were carried out based on a report submitted by the “Restructuring Management Secretariat” chaired by Secretary Govinda Bahadur Karki. According to the government, this step was taken to address the problem of oversized ministries, which had increased recurrent expenditure, and to make the state machinery more efficient.