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Secretaries slam political meddling
- Seek code of conduct for ministers
KATHMANDU, JUN 21 -
Government secretaries have complained that the bureaucracy has failed to deliver because of political interference, frequent transfers of civil servants and creation of unnecessary posts.
On Monday, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal called all secretaries at his office to discuss good governance, growing corruption and ways to make the bureaucracy effective and result-oriented.
The secretaries advised the prime minister to formulate a code of conduct for ministers to make them follow the due processes while working.
“We are bound by certain laws and we cannot breach them; however there are no laws and code of conduct for ministers. Most of them work without following the due process,” a secretary told the Post.
The secretaries also complained that in some cases ministers press them to perform tasks that are against the law, moral ethics and the process.
More than three-dozen secretaries took part in the discussions. While half of them gave suggestions to the prime minister, the remaining half will speak to him on Tuesday.
According to a secretary, most of them advised the prime minister to make the promotion and transfer system transparent and reduce political interference in their functioning.
“Ministers, lawmakers and even political parties exert pressure on us to allocate programmes and budget to their respective constituencies whenever budget preparations are underway or towards the end of a fiscal year,” another secretary told the Post.
“The highly politicised system while appointing secretaries is another reason for the overall failure of the bureaucracy”, the secretaries told the meeting.
Another issue of discussion was creation of “unnecessary” posts in various government offices.
The Ministry of Local Development has three secretaries; the Ministry of Constituent Assembly, Parliamentary Affairs and Culture has two secretaries, the prime minister’s office has five secretaries but all of them don’t have sufficient work to do, the secretaries said.
The prime minister, in turn, told the secretaries that the governance system in recent years has become “very poor.” “We are lagging behind in overall devolvement despite the immense natural resources that we have simply because of the ineffective bureaucratic system ,” he said. “After assuming office, I initiated some projects, but none of them made good progress due to the poor performance of the bureaucracy.”
Posted on: 2010-06-22 08:32
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