National
Civil servants not cooperating: MPs
Lawmakers from Parliamentary State Affairs and Good Governance Committee have accused civil servants of not co-operating with the provincial government to implement federalism.Lawmakers from Parliamentary State Affairs and Good Governance Committee have accused civil servants of not co-operating with the provincial government to implement federalism.
They made this charge during the committee meeting on Thursday in which Chief Secretary and secretaries of the Prime Minister’s Office were summoned.
During the meeting, ruling NCP lawmaker Janardan Sharma questioned the secretaries including Chief Secretary Lokdarshan Regmi why the civil servants are standing against federalism.
“Why don’t you send civil servants to the provinces? Why do you wish the failure of federalism?” Sharma asked. He was critical of the Chief Secretary for ‘undermining’ the provincial government by sending ‘inexperienced’ under-secretaries.Despite repeated directives from the federal government, civil servants have shown their reluctance to work in provincial governments and local governments.Lawmakers pointed out that as many as four secretaries were assigned to a just one ministry in the federal government whereas provincial governments are still struggling to get desired number of civil servants including secretaries to run their ministries.
“Bureaucrats non-cooperation has led the Chief Ministers to speak against the federal government,” said Sharma.
The two-day conclave of six Chief Ministers in Pokhara that ended on September 8 had concluded that the implementation of federalism would be impossible without effective functioning of provincial governments. Saying that the provincial governments have failed to live up to the expectations of people due shortage of resources, physical infrastructure, necessary human resources and laws, they had called for the support from federal government to make the provincial government strong and effective.
The lawmakers had also asked the reasons behind the delay in drafting necessary laws including Federal Police Act. “The federalism was brought with lots of sacrifice,” said another lawmaker Pampha Bhusal, and urged the civil servants to remember this fact.
Responding to the queries of the lawmakers, Chief Secretary Regmi said the delay was because the country was in a process of reinventing the state. He expressed commitment to address the concerns raised by the lawmakers.
Earlier, Regmi briefed the SAGC about the functions of the Office of the Prime Minister’s and Cabinet of Ministers. However, the lawmakers have directed them to come up with detailed work plan along with the strategies to overcome the concerns raised by them.
Concluding the meeting SAGC Chairperson Shashi Shrestha directed the government to resolve the issue of implementing the budget of the provincial government that was affected due to the delay in drafting necessary laws and lack of human resources.