Yes, the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC), the oil monopoly in Nepal, is these days making hefty profits of around Rs 418.7 million a month. Thus the demand of its staff that they be given bonuses appears legitimate. But it's not. For this profit is a pittance compared to Rs 12 billion the corporation owes to the government. So technically, the NOC is bankrupt, and would have been wound up long ago if it were a private company. So for its staff to insist that they be paid hefty bonuses—the NOC management had back in January proposed around Rs 900 million to be distributed in bonuses to their staff this year—without the organization first clearing its enormous debt is not just irresponsible, it is also illegitimate. After the government recently directed the corporation not to pay bonuses to its staff, they have now knocked the door of the Supreme Court to be considered eligible for the extra cash. The apex court is sure to quash their petition as the premise that the Bonus Act (1974) and its subsequent amendments leave the final decision of whether to pay bonuses to state employees on the government of the day. It also clearly states that bonuses can be paid only on the basis of overall, not yearly, profit.There has been a troubling trend in Nepal of late. Whenever some high-level state employees are dismissed for poor performance, or for corruption, or when the government does not bow down to illegitimate demands like bonus distribution in loss-making organizations, the victims invariably go to the Supreme Court for recompense. Since our judiciary has traditionally been a literal interpreter of laws, these otherwise unreasonable demands are often granted. But there is no risk of this happening in the present case, even if (or specially if) the court goes by the book. It would also be grave injustice to the taxpayers who have for years subsidized the perennially loss-making oil giant to also pay for the bonus of its staff, which is exactly what they will be doing if the NOC distributes bonuses without first clearing its dues to the government.
The NOC staff are not entitled to bonus also because they are not doing their jobs well. The corporation is often flagged as among the most corrupt bureaucracies in Nepal. Moreover, nearly a month since the blockade at the border was lifted, the corporation management has not been able to furnish credible answers about why people's access to vehicular and cooking fuel is still limited, why they still have to stand in queues for many hours to get a few liters of petrol or, with even more difficulty, to lay their hands on an LPG cylinder. But instead of working to facilitate people's access to fuel, the staff of NOC has been singularly pitching for higher bonuses, the enormous debt their organization is running conveniently forgotten for their personal benefit. The apex court should in its verdict unambiguously remind them of their broader duty to the taxpayers. In the meantime, why don't they all work to make their organization more transparent and effective, in which case they might even be eligible for legitimate bonuses a few years down the line?
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