Political understanding urged on number of ministries

KATHMANDU, March 31: The High-Level Administration Reform Monitoring Committee has urged political leaderships to reach a common understanding on the number of ministries at the central and provincial levels in the new federal setup as proposed by the new constitution.

Speaking at a meeting of Parliamentary State Affairs Committee on Thursday, the chairman of the administrative reforms monitoring committee Kashi Raj Dahal said that reaching a common understanding among political leaderships on the number of ministries at the central and provincial levels is essential as it can help formulate a clear road map for transforming the exiting public administration and bureaucracy to suit the federal system in the most efficient way."We have a large number of ministries but many of them will have no relevance in the federal structure for many activities which the ministries are currently carrying out will be done by the provincial governments. But if we decide to continue with the existing bodies in the new federal setup, there will be too many government bodies at both the central and provincial levels and a large number of additional manpower would have to be recruitted, which will only lead to unnecessary huge financial burden to the government," said Dahal,

"So, if political parties can reach a common understanding on the minimum number of ministries at the central level in the new federal system, that will provide us a clear framework to formulate an efficient transformative plan," added Dahal.

Currently, there are over 80,000 civil servants in the public administration. The civil servants are going to be transferred from the central level to the provincial and local levels.

The new constitution has made a provision that 20 different issues will be dealt with by the federal government, 28 other issues by provincial government and 20 issues by the local government. Based on the work division, the transitional plan is being formulated, informed Dahal.

Likewise, the new constitution allows the central government to appoint up to 25 ministers.""But we want political leaderships to reach an understanding on the minimal number of ministries at the central level in the new federal set up no matter what. This will help to keep the size of civil servants small and the government can focus on service delivery"" said he.

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