Separate board mulled to reform public entities

KATHMANDU, July 9: A taskforce of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has recommended that the government form a separate board to oversee operations and implement the much needed reforms to steer the state-owned enterprises that have been inflicting undue financial burden to the government.



It has also suggested the government to hike the salary of civil servants to increase their productivity and also enable them lead a decent life. Salary of civil servants has not been reviewed in the past three years.[break]



The taskforce led by Bishnu Prasad Lamsal, joint secretary at MoF, handed over its report to the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari on Friday.



Presenting the major recommendations, Lamsal suggested that the government raise salary of civil servants through the upcoming budget for fiscal year 2011/12, referring to back-to-back double digit inflation over the past couple of years.



Principally, the task force said, the minimum salary of officer level staffers at this juncture should be at least Rs 15,000. If raise by such an extent is not possible, the panel has urged the government to at least address the concerns of civil servants in the budget for the coming fiscal year.



It has also suggested that government form all powerful and autonomous Public Enterprise Board to formulate appropriate policies, enforce them, and recruit the board and top management, scrapping such authority enjoyed by the concerned line ministries.



It also suggested the government to hold regular elections of the employees´ trade unions to identify the official trade union and exercise collective bargaining negotiations for raising efficiency and improving service delivery of the government agencies.

Related story

CIAA tells govt to review perks of public entities boards, staf...