The parliamentary committee gave such a directive to the ministry during a meeting with government secretaries at Singha Durbar on Sunday. [break]
“The meeting directs the ministry to submit within a month to this committee a report on the implementation of the committee´s decisions,” said Ramnath Dhakal, chairman of the SAC, after the meeting.
The meeting also concluded that the ministry has largely been unable to take up the responsibility of playing a central role in the transfers, placements and deputations of civil servants as per the legal provisions.
Civil servants are supposed to be transferred once a year, and the MoGA has to give prior approval to a ministry for transfers and deputations.
The parliamentary committee had invited the government secretaries upon receiving complaints about massive bribery for transferring civil servants to lucrative positions. The committee had questioned why the secretaries yield to pressure from ministers violating the legal provisions.
At the end of the meeting, the SAC also asked the MoGA to immediately prepare a report on the management of bureaucracy and submit it.
The meeting concluded that the ministry has the practice of approving transfers, deputations and placements of civil servants based on subjective judgments and not the existing legal provisions.
The SAC chairman also directed the civil servants to begin homework on amending the legal provisions if it has created problems in the bureaucracy, and submit a report in this regard to the committee within a month.
The meeting drew the attention of the ministry over the plight of civil servants who have been compelled to work in remote areas for years, and directed it to manage transfers, deputations and placements in a justified manner.
894 transfers in four months
There have been altogether 894 transfers in the last four months alone. According to SAC, most of the transfers violated the existing legal provisions. The Ministry of Local Development has topped the list of ministries to transfer civil servants. SAC Chairman Dhakal said the ministry transferred 128 civil servants in the last four months alone.
Similarly, the Ministry of Information and Communications transferred 122, ministry of agriculture and cooperatives 81, ministry of home affairs 74, physical planning and works 55, and forest and social conservation 44 civil servants.
We´re under pressure for transfers: Secretaries
Meanwhile, the secretaries who were present at the meeting told SAC that they are under pressure from the ministers and trade unions for the transfers.
“We have created ministries unnecessarily. I have been transferred to so many places,” said Brinda Hada at the ministry of energy. She meant to say that a secretary gets transferred to less lucrative ministries if he or she doesn´t obey the order of the minister to transfer civil servants. “So transfers are made through political consensus,” she said.
Likewise, Keshav Bhattarai at the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation said that the secretaries are under pressure for transfers every time there is a change in the government. “Besides, we are also under pressure from trade unions,” he said.
Defending himself against the accusation of negligence, Pratap Pathak at MOGA argued that politicians exert enormous pressure for transfers.
Similarly, Chief Secretary Madhav Ghimire pointed out the need for amending the existing laws to regulate the transfers of civil servants. Lilamani Poudel at the prime minister´s office attributed the rampant transfers to impunity. “It takes more than six months even to transfer a peon for dereliction of duty,” Poudel said.
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