After prolonged deliberations, the Legislation Management Committee of the National Assembly has agreed on incorporating a two-year cooling-off period clause in the Federal Civil Service Bill, restricting civil servants from taking up other positions immediately after their retirement or resignation.

If the provision is retained in the bill until it is endorsed by the upper house, civil servants will have to wait at least two years to get appointments in constitutional bodies or other government mechanisms after leaving the service. The committee reached an agreement after ruling CPN-UML softened its position to either remove the provision or decrease it to one year. UML lawmakers have proposed different amendments to exclude the cooling-off period from the bill.

“We have finalised 122 of 147 sections in the bill today [Saturday],” said Jhakku Prasad Subedi, a CPN (Maoist Centre) member in the parliamentary committee. “There has been an agreement to impose two years of restrictions on getting appointments after retirement or resignation.” The provision will apply to the gazetted special class (secretary) and first class (joint secretary), also from the provincial service along with the federal service. This will also be applicable to services other than civil service, according to an official from the parliamentary committee.

Three major parties took different positions on the cooling-off period provision. The ruling UML wanted the provisions allowing civil servants to take any constitutional or other appointments immediately after they retire or resign removed.

The CPN (Maoist Centre), the largest party in the upper house, had registered amendments to increase the cooling-off period to three years. The Nepali Congress, on the other hand, stood for removing the tampered part from the bill.

Section 82(4) of the bill states that any employee who has resigned or retired must have completed at least two years before taking another government appointment. However, alongside the committee’s decision, a sub-section 82 (5) has been incorporated into the bill that runs contrary to the earlier clause, allowing civil servants to take another government appointment within two years of their resignation or retirement.

A probe has found that tampering was caused by a weakness in the then chairperson of the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee, Ram Hari Khatiwada, and officials at the Parliament Secretariat. Ishwari Neupane has already replaced Khatiwada. The cooling-off period is among the most controversial provisions to be decided.

“The deliberations on the cooling-off clause consumed most of the time of deliberations, forcing the committee not to delve too deeply into other provisions,” said the committee's official. The National Assembly has until Tuesday to endorse and forward the bill to the House of Representatives.

According to the Constitution of Nepal, a bill originating in the House of Representatives must be decided by the upper house within two months. The bill was forwarded to the upper house on July 2. “The next meeting, called for tomorrow [Sunday], is expected to finalise the bill. However, developing a full report will take at least a day before submitting to the National Assembly for endorsement,” said Gopal Bhattarai, a UML member in the committee.

The House committee under the National Assembly has revoked the lower house’s decision to stop free competition at the joint secretary level. Subedi says they also want to revise the provision that stops free competition for the non-gazetted first class.

So far, the House committee has agreed to a provision in the bill that envisions increasing the retirement age of civil servants to 60, up from the existing 58. This provision, however, will be implemented gradually. The retirement age will continue to be 58 until the fiscal year in which the bill is endorsed. It will then rise to 59 and 60, respectively, in the succeeding fiscal years.

The erstwhile Pushpa Kamal Dahal government had registered the bill in the lower house on March 4 last year and it was forwarded to the House committee on May 28 after theoretical discussions. A total of 1,583 amendments were registered to the bill by lawmakers.

The bill envisions that the provincial civil service commissions will appoint chief administrative officers in local units under the respective provinces. However, until the provinces start their own recruitments, the federal government will depute such officers in bulk, and the provincial governments will assign them to local units. This arrangement can continue for a maximum of 10 years. Officers can be transferred between provinces once during their service period.

The bill places provincial secretaries under the respective provincial governments, thus meeting a longstanding demand of the provinces. However, for now, they will be deputed by the federal government. Provincial principal secretaries will continue to be under the federal government.