KATHMANDU, March 26: As many as fifty-five local governments have defied the federal government's directive to evaluate good governance. The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration had directed all the local governments to evaluate the achievements and actions taken by them during the last five years as the next local level election is nearing.

The ministry has also prepared software for the same purpose. The software can help to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the local governments and keep abreast of the shortcomings in development and good governance and upload updated reviews.

There are 100 indicators for 10 subjects for the performance and evaluation of a local government including local level institutional management, organization and administration, financial budget and plan management, public service delivery, judicial performance, physical infrastructure, social inclusion, environment protection, disaster management and cooperation, among others. According to the ministry, these indicators are classified into three stages namely overall condition, procedural condition and quantitative condition and each indicator will be assessed with a total of 100 points.

Basanta Adhikari, spokesperson for the Ministry of Federal Affairs, said that 55 municipalities and rural municipalities have defied the directive of the ministry. According to him, Madhyapur Thimi of Bhaktapur and Bhairavi of Dailekh did not even participate in the process started by the federal government.

According to the ministry, 131 out of 137 local governments of Province 1 participated in the evaluation process. The rest of the local governments did not even fill the application form for the software. Similarly, 112 out of 136 local governments in Madhesh Province, 114 out of 119 in Bagmati, 84 out of 85 in Gandaki, 107 out of 109 in Lumbini and 62 out of 89 local governments in Karnali have participated in the evaluation process. The local governments in the Far-western Province have shown the most sincerity in the good governance evaluation process as all the 88 local levels in the far western have participated in the evaluation process.

Similarly, the ministry has decided to give marks to all the local governments within a month on the basis of 698 local level forms filled in the software. “We will soon publish the result showcasing which local government has received how many marks before May 13,” Adhikari said.

 
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