The government has not promoted any officials to the rank of secretary since last December, and a growing number of senior bureaucratic posts have remained vacant as it reviews the structure of the federal civil service.

Vacancies initially went unfilled because of the election code of conduct. After taking office, the new government continued to defer promotions as it works on a broader restructuring of the civil service.

According to the Department of National Personnel Records (Civil), ten of the 70 sanctioned secretary-level posts are currently vacant, and several more are due to fall vacant in the coming weeks.

Chief Secretary Suman Raj Aryal will retire on July 9 after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 58. Secretaries Krishna Hari Pushkar and Khagendra Prasad Nepal are due to retire on July 8 and July 12, respectively. Chiranjeewee Chataut, Pramila Devi Bajracharya and Madhusudan Burlakoti have already retired in the previous month.

Another 13 secretaries are scheduled to retire during the first quarter of the coming fiscal year, adding to the number of vacancies.

The records office says the Nepal Administration Service has the largest number of secretary-level posts, with 36 positions, six of which are vacant. The Engineering Service has eight sanctioned secretary posts, three of them vacant, while the only secretary post in the Forest Service is also vacant.

The government last promoted three joint secretaries to secretaries in December. No promotions have been made since.

Joint secretaries awaiting promotion say the prolonged delay has disrupted the civil service’s established career progression system. Some senior officials are now approaching retirement without reaching the secretary rank despite vacancies at the top.

“Civil servants join the service with the expectation that seniority and performance will eventually take them to the highest ranks,” a joint secretary said on condition of anonymity. “The promotion system has always provided that career path. But delaying promotions just when officers become eligible is unfair and undermines the career system.”

The Civil Service Act requires a candidate for promotion to a secretary-level vacancy to be recommended within 15 days of the vacancy arising, and the appointment to be made within the following 15 days.

Under the law, 20 percent of secretary appointments are based on seniority and the remaining 80 percent on performance evaluation.

Once the government notifies the number of vacancies, the Public Service Commission determines how many posts will be filled under each category. A recommendation committee then shortlists candidates and submits three names for each vacant post for the Cabinet to make the final selection.

However, the government has not notified the commission of secretary-level vacancies that have arisen over the past seven months, so the promotion process has not moved forward.

Hemraj Aryal, spokesperson for the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, said the government is reviewing the organisational structure and staffing requirements of all ministries and government agencies.

Aryal said the decision to assign only one secretary to each ministry and reduce the number of federal ministries would also require a review of secretary-level positions.

The government has already reduced the number of federal ministries to 18.

Previously, the ministries of Finance; Education and Sports; Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation; Health and Population; Industry, Commerce and Supplies; Agriculture, and Forests and Environment each had two secretaries. Several of those ministries have since been restructured.

The newly created Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation has yet to be assigned a secretary.

The restructuring has also left six serving secretaries without permanent assignments. They have been placed in an additional pool at the prime minister’s office because no suitable posts are currently available.

Although the government has adopted a one-secretary-per-ministry policy, the Ministry of Infrastructure Development still has an additional secretary overseeing the water supply sector until further administrative arrangements are made.

Most ministries have completed organisational and management surveys and submitted their reports to the prime minister’s office. A committee led by Kiran Raj Sharma, a secretary at the prime minister’s office, is reviewing the proposed organisational structures and staffing plans.

Aryal said the government aims to complete the organisational review before the end of the current fiscal year.

A secretary at the prime minister’s office, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the government appeared reluctant to proceed with promotions because it had yet to assign responsibilities to all serving secretaries.

“With the number of ministries reduced and several secretaries already without permanent responsibilities, the government is unlikely to move ahead with promotions until the restructuring is completed,” the official said.