Administrative Reforms
Some Attempts

By Uttam Maharjan

IT IS the duty of a government to render services to its people by ensuring that target groups, in particular, always receive the services, that the quality of the services is satisfactory and optimal use is made of the resources at its disposal. All these are possible only when the administrative machinery is sound, well-knit and well-managed.

Background

The history of administrative reforms in Nepal may be traced back to 2004 B.S. when Padma Shumshere Rana sought the help of the Indian government in reforming the administration. In 2008 B.S. some senior Indian experts came up with various suggestions on administrative reforms in the country. In 2009 B.S. the Buch Commission did much work in this direction.

However, the Administrative Reform Commission set up in 2013 B.S. under the chairmanship of the then Prime Minister Tanka Prasad Acharya is considered a real attempt at administrative reforms.

Thereafter, such commissions were constituted in 2025, 2032 and 2048 B.S. under the chairmanship of the then Home Minister Bedananda Jha, Dr Bhesh Bahadur Thapa and the then Premier Girija Prasad Koirala respectively. The Koirala Commission completed its work and submitted its report to the government towards the end of the same year.

The commission came up at a time when the country had just passed 2 years under a multiparty democracy after shaking off the shackles of 30 years of the partyless Panchayati regime and the Panchayati administrative mechanism had proved unpropitious for the new dispensation.

As per the recommendations of the commission, the Civil Service Act - 2049 B.S. and Civil Service Regulations, 2050 B.S. were formulated in the country. In a similar vein, the Administrative Reform task Force was created in 2055 B.S. to implement the suggestions and recommendations made by the Koirala Commission on HMG’s jurisdiction, services to the people, administrative configuration, civil service reforms, decentralisation, public enterprises, corruption control, monitoring units and so on.

The present government Headed by Girija Prasad Koirala was formed with a three-pronged commitment: peace and security, corruption control and good governance. As a gesture
to good governance through administrative reforms, the government reduced the number of ministries from 26 to 21 as per the Division of Work Regulations, 2057.

The government has already implemented most of the recommendations made by the Koirala Commission and the remaining ones will be gradually implemented in due course. For this, the Administrative Reform Coordination and Follow-up Commission has already been formed to press on with the administrative reforms.

For good governance and sound administration, bureaucracy should be well-managed. For this, the size of a bureaucracy should be as per the requirements. An overstaffed or understaffed bureaucracy is not desirable from the standpoint of good administration.

Keeping this in mind, the government has decided to retrench a 103,000-strong bureaucracy by 25 per cent to 77,000 by retiring civil servants who have served for 20 years or who have reached 50 years of age with a lump-sum payment, by dismissing temporary and contract employees and by slashing unnecessary posts.

This may be taken as part of the government programme of boosting efficiency and productivity. In fact, a jumbo bureaucracy entails a slew of resources and may also engender lethargy and inefficiency on the part of civil servants.

Government offices are found to be used as a recruiting ground for the unemployed through nepotism, favouritism and the spoils system. This would, for sure, cast a shadow on the administrative machinery.

In actual fact, nepotism and favouritism, together with politicisation, an irksome bureaucracy, red tape and corruption, tend to cripple the administrative machinery. To make the administration compatible with the norms of democracy, bureaucracy ought to be reformed in such a way as to translate into action the rule of law.

The government has initiated various policies and programmes for the well-being of its people. Such programmes should be set as per the changing times. So administrative reforms should be set in motion from time to time so as to suit such programmes to the changing times.

A change or shake-up in the government should not unduly influence such programmes. Or else, the administration may be badly affected to the extent of being counter-productive. So, partisan influences should not be allowed to sway the administration. What should be borne in mind is that governments may change at any time, but government policies and programmes should be changed only after extensive review and deliberations.

The administration should be invariably accountable to its people. But to the consternation of the general public, administrative accountability is found to be on the decline. There are administrative procrastination and irregularities here, there and everywhere. That is why, the people are growing diffident about the functioning of the administration. To restore public confidence, the administration should be in active as well as result and people-oriented.

For an efficient administration to persist and flourish, the image of the civil service should be untainted, corruption should be contained administrators should develop anti-political-interference attitudes and, what is more, both administrators and politicians should be committed to the administration.

Commitment

The government has committed itself to administrative reforms by designing an action and result-oriented administration armed with a conductive working environment, a carrot-and-stick policy, institutional flexibility and a pro-people policy. In the context of nine years that have elapsed since the establishment of the 2048 Administrative Reform Commission, the recommendations of the commission should be strictly implemented so that the people may not face administrative hassles and delays and they may repose unswerving faith on the government.

Those Were The Days, My Friends

By Surendra Singh K.C.

ALMOST every a week except Saturday morning, I do about an hour of cycling. Even though friends and relatives advise against my doing so, let alone puffing up stubbornly through in clines like the Bansbariko ukalo or the Dillibazaarko ukalo ("at your age," they say warningly). I really enjoy cycling. There was a time when even a hefty youngster would climb down the bike as soon as he faced an ukalo (climb). He was afraid the exertion would give him thysis (tuberculosis). They thought so even though the Kathmandu air at those times was probably one of the cleanest and the least polluted. Superstitions don’t die early but this one did, I think.

Advantage

Cycling has its advantages, not merely from the exercising point of view or even for compensating the dissipation of previous nights. You can also, so to say, surf the net much longer, that is, cover longer distances, compared with walking. Even after the sun has climbed up the horizon, the return back home also becomes less of a tedium. However, nothing is without its hazards. But when it comes to cycling there are simple tricks to avoid them. Where the traffic really gets snarling, take to the pavements. While crossing the road, I mean a really busy road, get off it and walk with the cycle in tow: watch for the marauding motor cycle, though! But recently, just a few days back, I saw in the Kantipur daily a picture of two errant cyclists, being made to do stand up and down while holding their ears, in middle of the road. They were doing so under the watchful gaze of the traffic cops. They were being punished for violating traffic rules. The picture reminded me of my Darbar School days, when the teachers, under even the least provocation, would give that up-and-down treatment to the offending urchin. The hazardous part of it is that only the traffic police know when what you’d been doing every day suddenly becomes illegal. In all probability, those cyclists were doing the same trail every day until suddenly one day the damn action became illegal and they got caught.

A decade or slightly more of the multi-party, one-man-one-vote political contrivance we have chosen to call democracy has turned through the political process alone many paupers into multi-millionaires overnight. Politics has turned out to be the kamadhenu gai (wishing-cap) for these political leaders. That has turned their heads off. Sometimes you can see in this paper or that snapshots of these worthies, grinning from ear to ear, posing on bikes. These illustrious people have psychologically so distanced themselves from 2046 sal that they have successfully deluded themselves into believing they were born with nothing less than a Prado. They are riding bikes merely to demonstrate to their wannabe overnight multi-millionaire political neophytes what colossal sacrifice they can perform for a cause. I remember once in the late sixties seeing one Panchayati stalwart, once known as the great Koirala’s pet lap dog, doing the same as an example for the masses to follow. It did not then nor does it now herald a sustained anti-pollution drive as some innocent friends believe these spectacles indicate. Pollution (or garbage) is the one and only medium where the bacteria nepali politicium thrive and are cultured. In reality for these people as well as for the up and coming smart alecks the bicycle is unthinkable as a worthy means of transport. Not only the brigand barons but also the chhaka jamming and masal julushing servants of the masses are merely serving lavish feasts to the starving masses. They’ve already spun and are spinning the gans, bas, kapas, theme to the lucrative climax for themselves. They look down upon the bike as a nightmare from the past. The bike is consigned to peons, retired teachers, newspaper boys, vegetable and fruit vendors and the like. So there is nothing unnatural about the traffic police personnel thinking it below their dignity to notice the poor pedal pushers or not treat them like errant school children.

In the time of the nirankush rana sasan (tyrannical Rana governance), the bike undoubtedly had some personality. But if you owned a bike, you had to observe certain rules. Bike users could not dare to ignore these rules or ignored them at their own peril. Double riding was forbidden. A ghanti (cycle bell) or a horn was a must. Sui suing or whistling with the mouth, while manipulating the right leg to press the front fender as a brake, was just not known. When evening fell you could not ride a bike without using light, electric or kerosene oil lantern. The present meance of bikes without proper brakes, horns or lights whirling down steep inclines even on moonless nights like suisuing unguided missiles on unwary pedestrians, could not even be thought about.

To tell you about the long reach of the law, let me tell you the story of what my dear friend TBB had to suffer in those nirankush days. He was returning home from badminton practice. He was on his bike. It had no light. So he was not riding it. Now those days a small foot-track ran from near the Mahankalthan end to the Baghbazaar Chandra jyoti bijuli ghar end of the Tundikhel, then known as Asia’s largest parade ground. The historic khariko bot platform, unique and picturesque, was still there. It was a starless night. Close surveillance showed there was no Ramdal (policeman) around. My friend thought it wise to use the shorter diagonal route, which the foot track provided. Since nobody was around, once inside the tundikhel, my friend rightly thought (who wouldn’t?) why not ride on the bike instead of carrying it along. He had but proceeded a little distance when the whistle blew.

Whole-hearted devotion to the intricate movements of the shuttlecocks had sharpened my dear friend’s reaction time to the fraction of a second. The moment the whistle had registered on his ear-drum, my friend climbed down the bike and holding the handles with hands, propelled himself breathlessly forward towards the Baghbazaar end. The policeman, probably anemic, because there was no ration system in those nirankush days, could hardly match my friend’s wonderful stamina. He gave up the chase after some time. Our friend, however, continued rushing through Baghbazaar, past the Tukucha bridge, past Dillibazaar without once looking back. How lucky for TBB that in those nirankush days the tundikhel was free of dankas (looters) wearing this political garb or that? However, an occasional encounter with kichkanya (virgin ghosts) and/or bhakunde bhoot (ball shaped ghosts) could not be ruled out.

Usual

In those nirankush Rana days, it was quite usual and perfectly safe for the sipahi (soldier), now called jawan, and other lowly government servants like the pipa’s to walk nights and days to be at home in the hills to celebrate dasain together with their near and dear ones. A certain sipahi (soldier) named Saytey, heading for home in Kavre for the same purpose was said to have met a goat rambling alone one moon-lit night near the Ganesh temple by the Rani pokhari. He thanked the Lord Ganesh for the windfall, took hold of the goat and carried it round his neck. As he neared the eastern end of the pokhari, anticipating the smile on the face of his wife and the joyful shrieks of his children, he suddenly heard somebody saying, "taha taha joon, hagee, satey dai" (brilliant moonshine, isn’t it brother Satey). There was nobody around. There were only Satey and the goat. Satey at once realised that the goat riding on his shoulders was a bhoot (ghost). Satey dai gave the ghost goat a mighty heave off his shoulders and sprinted for life, as did our dear friend, TBB.

Time indeed takes life through strange twists and turns.

RANDOM NOTES

By Bijay Aryal

Too Much To Bear

THE SLC examinations are only five months away. From this year, the candidates will have to cope with more texts and more papers. Compared with their seniors, they are carrying an academic burden that seems too much. And compared with their Class Ten counterparts in India, they seem much too overburdened. Whether it is the ICSC board or the CBSE board or the state board, matriculation candidates have to prepare for no more than six papers. Here the number has been increased from seven to eight, with more texts crammed into each paper.

The students are finding it too difficult to cope with their studies. Moreover, they do not have the past as a guide as they will be the first batch under the new syllabuses. Given the quantities they have to study, for most students there remains little for creative work at school. The private schools are trying to make their students cope with the texts in a frantic way - by rote or otherwise. Even holders of better SLC records look somewhat worried about the exams this time.

The SLC hopefuls have to prepare for the exams to be taken from the textbooks of both Classes Nine and Ten. Eight papers multiplied by two give sixteen books. Various branches of knowledge within each paper make the texts even bulkier. For example, under Science students have to study Physics, Chemistry, Biology, etc.

If things are too tough for students in better-equipped and better-manned schools, what picture will we get from the poorest students in the government schools? How can they cope? No skill is required just to swell the number of textbooks. But great skill, understanding and sympathy are needed to draw up the proper aims of SLC education and to devise texts accordingly. For this the curriculum development centre of the Education Ministry should do its homework thoroughly.

How Many Tests?

Should every Tenth Grader, in principle, be allowed to appear for the SLC exams? Whether they can pass the exams will be shown by the results. But a tradition of a Test conducted by a board has been set in order to weed out the poorest students who have no hope of passing the crucible to be conducted just two or three months later. Up to that point, not much criticism needs to be made.

The SLC hopefuls have three stages to overcome-first the school-level Pre-Test, secondly the district level Test, and finally the SLC exams. The pre-Test starting in various schools this year, attention is drawn towards the rationale for this practice. It is a barrier even harder to overcome than the Test conducted by the district education board or the BABSON. Many school management boards hold up their students in Class Ten if they do not seem to secure a first in the SLC exams. Or those students could take their SLC as private students or as students of some government school. This is one of the most unjust things the commercial schools have been perpetrating on their students.

If any student proved too weak, they should not be promoted to the next class. But the schools do not do so for fear that such students might go elsewhere depriving them of the fees and other charges.

But the axe falls when the schools have extracted the last pound of flesh from the students.

This is being done under the very nose of our educational authorities. But they are looking away. For years this practice has gone on.

The guilty should have faced a heavy penalty for thus holding up any student. This practice has to do with the desire of the schools to show a bright scorecard. To appear for the Test is a natural right of every Tenth Grader. Another irony is that each PABSON member conducts the pre-Test though the BABSON itself organises the Test for the private schools. What tamasha is this?