KATHMANDU, Feb 16: The lower house of parliament endorsed the replacement bill for the Civil Servants Adjustment Bill in a hurry on Friday, paving the way for civil servants—those choosing adjustment in provincial and local services--to return to federal service through promotion.
The bill was endorsed by the State Affairs Committee (SAC) and then the House of Representatives and also tabled in the upper house the same day in view of the constitutional deadline for endorsement by February 22.
Bill bars local units from recruiting civil servants
The National Assembly has sought amendments to the bill from upper house members by February 19. Earlier, 33 lawmakers had sought amendments to different 81 provisions . The lower house SAC accepted amendments to various six provisions including one paving the way for adjusted civil servants to return to the federal service through competence-based promotion. Though civil servants including staff at the parliament secretariat had pressed for a provision allowing adjusted civil servants to contest promotion into other services in the federal service, SAC didn’t accept the demand.
“Civil servants adjusted at the provincial and local levels shall contest promotions to higher ranks through internal competition, seniority and work performance appraisal prior to the readjustment,” reads the amendment approved by the lower house on Friday. The government in the original bill had proposed to allow adjusted civil servants at the provincial and local services to return to federal service only through inter-service competition .
Similarly, after rigorous lobbying from staff at parliament the House has paved the way for the adjustment of staff in the parliament service into the administrative services at the provinces and local units. The government’s proposal had allowed parliament staff to choose adjustment only at the provincial assembly services.
With the revision of the bill by the parliamentary committee, the provinces shall appoint officials up to secretary level at the provinces under the provincial services. But the principle secretary at the province will be assigned by the federal services, according to the bill. The federal government will assign civil servants from the federal service until the appointment of the chief executives of the local units.
After the endorsement of the bill by the SAC on Friday afternoon, the lower house briefly discussed the bill. But lawmakers vented their ire for tabling the bill for endorsement without letting them to go through the details. “I cannot endorse the bill without going through the details of the revisions made by the committee. This should be withdrawn for now,” said Sarita Giri. Only three lawmakers took part in deliberations at the lower house, while no one took part in the deliberations in the upper house meeting later in the evening. The upper house has planned to endorse the bill on February 20.
