Malla was luckily promoted to the post of DIG eight years ago after Narayan Sharma Acharya won a verdict from the Apex Court to get promoted to the post. “Since I was senior to Acharya, I got a windfall promotion,” he said. [break]
“Otherwise, I would never have been a choice despite all my merits.” Sharma is the only senior officer in Nepal Police to get a promotion through court verdict.
Both Malla and Sharma represent stark examples of how promotions in Nepal Police are manipulated. “Records of my ´performance evaluation´ showed that I had obtained only 15 out of 150 under the heading, which means two out of three gave me nil,” Malla said.
The non-transparent procedures of promotion in the latest three rounds of promotion announced in the last two weeks have courted many controversies. But this time around, the promotion scandal flared up to a new level when one of the most admired police officers SP Ramesh Kharel was elbowed out of the promotion race for the post of Senior SP.
“This is only a continuation of a deep-rooted malady in the police organization thriving on faulty and opaque policies,” said a group of sitting and former police officials interviewed by Republica.
Policy flaws and manipulation
The promotion of the entire hierarchy in Nepal Police hinges on a hefty 485 full-marks evaluation system as per the provisions of the Police Regulations 2049 BS. The system has literally not been challenged for years, except for the daring case of Sharma.
Of the eight heads in the evaluation table, the single criterion of seniority amounts to 150 marks covering a maximum of 10 years of service in a particular post. This criterion has remained unblemished due to its objective nature.
Remaining criteria like unit command, geographical posting, training, awards, performance evaluation and assessment by the promotion committee have mostly been manipulated, officials said. Candidates are often unaware of how they were evaluated.
“The promotion committee reserves 30 marks, which in general suffices for intended manipulation,” said a senior officer, who worked at the Personnel Administration Section (PAS) at the Police headquarters “If you are to be dropped, you will even be given one mark, whereas you get full marks when you are able to pull the right string,” he added.
“I have even seen many instances in which credentials of competent candidates were taken out of the file to deduct marks,” said the official who was frank enough to disclose that he had manipulated his own records taking advantage of his posting at PAS.
The so-called performance evaluation -- a secret evaluation based on personal judgment -- carrying 150 marks is conducted at three different levels by seniors. “If you ever disagree with your boss, you are at the risk of losing marks.”
Moreover, opportunities are not given to all officers equally. “If you are posted at the headquarters and remain close to the bosses, you would easily complete the required number of trainings and postings,” said officials. “These aspects make everything possible in our organization. A person who held the last position in recruitment could top the entire batch later or a batch topper could even be omitted during promotion.”
“The existing promotion system has many loopholes,” said former Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Deepak Singh Thangden. “Nothing is transparent and nobody is required to be accountable.”
The ultimate solution
For AIG Amar Singh Shah, formation of an autonomous Police Service Commission is the ultimate solution. “The commission would take charge of everything from recruitment to retirement,” he said. “I never knew during my 30-year service how many points I achieved for each promotion,” he said.
Shah also said that the government does not want to make Nepal Police a professional organization. “When there can be Public Service Commission, why can there not be a Police Service Commission?” he questioned.
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