It’s an unnecessary move that will add burden to the state coffer and make political parties even more unpopular. Creating a small-sized ministry will cost about 40 million rupees in administrative expenses alone. About half a dozen studies carried out in the past have recommended that Nepal doesn’t need more than 18 ministries. Some reports even suggested that 11 ministries would suffice to maintain work efficiency and to streamline government expenses. But time and again, different governments have created new ministries just to accommodate more politicians into the cabinet. The last Maoist-led government had also added three new ministries, taking the total number to 25. The credit for establishing the practice of adding new ministries without any justified reason, however, goes to former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. When Deuba became the prime minister for the first time 13 years ago, he increased the number of ministries to 27 and formed a “jumbo” cabinet with 48 ministers, a record number so far. That was also the time when the popularity of the political parties took a nosedive, eventually culminating into the power grab by the monarchy.
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal had publicly said that he would keep the number of ministries to 24 at maximum and number of ministers to 35. It now seems that he is sure to default on that public commitment. The UML has defended the move, saying it’s a compulsion of the coalition government. That’s not how we see it. It’s a result of lack of moral courage and tendency of Nepali politicians to compromise on basic things for their own survival. If Prime Minister Nepal had mustered enough grit and threatened coalition parties to quit rather than increasing the number of ministries, he would have gotten huge public support and things would have been different.
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