Kathmandu, Apr. 7:Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Poudel today said that the government was committed to reform the civil service to ensure good governance and overall economic development.
“We recognise and value the importance of the role of civil service to achieving this noble objective,” Poudel said inaugurating a one-day workshop on Action Plan for Civil Service Reforms.
Poudel said that Nepalese bureaucracy badly needed enthusiasm and commitment to serving the people and accelerating the pace of development activities. “The government is working hard to rearrange ministerial structure and its functioning.” Civil service reform is one of the priorities of the present government.
“Reform of the civil service is one of the most critical priorities facing Nepal in its effort to promote more effective development and thereby reduce poverty,” ADB’s Resident Representative Richard Vokes said.
Vokes said that the core problem of the civil service was not its size but rather its very wide mandate and its organisation. “The civil service cannot fulfil this mandate because of limited staff, limited budget and a lack of specialised training.”
Vokes said that the wide mandate of the civil service was also in contradiction with the liberalisation policy adding that the government should shift its role from that of a doer to that of a facilitator.
Citing the absence of merit-based career progression, the absence of a credible performance monitoring and feedback system, the absence of clear job descriptions and individual responsibility, the lack of accountability, increasing political interference and patronage as the factors contributing to the low morale of the civil servants, Vokes said that increasing pay and introducing performance related salaries would help change their attitude.
“Civil service reform is about refocusing, reorganisation, retooling and retraining. It is about strengthening the effectiveness and capacity of the civil service, not about weakening it.”
Introducing the action plan, ADB Consultant Janet Tay said that reform was changing attitude of all the stakeholders, which she said, was a difficult task. Tay stressed on meritocracy for a country to excel.
Organised jointly by the Ministry of General Administration and the Asian Development Bank’s Nepal Resident Mission and participated in by about 135 representatives of Nepalese government, ADB, donor agencies, and civil society, the workshop aimed at discussing the findings and recommendations of an ADB funded technical assistance project to formulate an action plan on civil service reform in Nepal.
The government’s 1992 Administrative Reforms Commission report was the basis of the work conducted under technical assistance that began in June 1999. The initiatives included conducting a civil service census, establishing a computerised personnel database, undertaking a functional review of ministries, and consideration of a range of alternatives for decentralisation.
The objective of the civil service reform programme is broadly to enhance policy development and service delivery by reforming the organisation and management of the civil service. Possible initiatives under the proposed programme will seek to develop more effective leadership for change management at all levels of the civil service, enhance civil service efficiency, strengthen anti-corruption measures, develop a capable and motivated civil service, and develop a performance-oriented and accountable civil service.
Proposed actions under the reform programme will include reorganisation of government ministries, strengthening of constitutional oversight bodies, legislative reform to improve the transparency and accountability of the civil service, reforms to provide additional incentives to civil servants, and introduction of standards for customer service in key service delivery ministries. It is proposed that the first phase of the reform programme will be implemented over a five-year period to begin in 2000.