PERC Report

THE present government led by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, has firmly committed itself to provide good governance in the country. As per its promise, the government has initiated different measures to accomplish that goal. The other day, in pursuance to this policy for better governance, the First Interim Report of the Public Expenditure Review Commission (PERC) was presented to Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya by convenor of the Commission Binaya Dhoj Khand. The report provides different suggestions of how different ministries and government departments can be streamlined and public expenditure curtailed. There is no doubt that the bureaucracy in the country is top-heavy and pompous. While to some extent, employment may have been provided to a certain number of people, the government machinery has become sluggish and inefficient because there are too many people with too little work. It has to be remembered that just making different ministries and other government departments like employemnt agencies, does not confirm with the policy of maintaining fiscal and economic discipline. Quite correctly, while accepting the PERC report, Finance Minister Acharya opined that the suggestions of the present report should contribute significantly in making effective economic discipline.

For example, the PERC report suggests that the Ministry for Women, Children and Social Welfare can be scrapped, as the National Women’s Commission has already been formed. Likewise, it suggests that the Ministry for General Administration can be converted into a central work management office under the head of the government. The report also has pointed out how development projects could be made more effective and the role of the central government minimised. Such policies were outlined by the present government while announcing the budget for the ongoing fiscal year. At a time when public expenditure management is becoming more challenging, all such pragmatic guidelines should be of much value for the decision makers in the government. It has been long felt that political interference and political interests have contributed in bloating the government machinery and making it ineffective. Such a practice prevailed specially during the period when there was a hung Parliament in the country. It can be hoped that the government will now seriously implement the suggestions given by the PERC and fulfil the commitment it made to the people to provide efficient and good governance.

ILO Convention 182

TODAY, International Labour Organisation’s Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention No. 182 comes into force, one day before the United Nations Child Rights Convention Day and exactly 12 months after the date on which the ILO officially registered the second ratification of the Convention 182. This Convention aims for the elimination of the "worst" forms of child labour while at the same time sets a minimum age of 18 for all work. But this Convention is different from the core convention of ILO called Convention 138 which is generally accepted as a flexible instrument in that it provides for exclusion of limited categories of employment or work from its application. Similarly, a ratifying State may thus exclude, after consultation with organisations or employees and workers, such categories of employment or work in respect of which special and substantial problems of application arise. Similarly, the basic requirement of this convention is that ratifying States specify a minimum age of 18 for any employment or works which by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to jeopardise the health, safety or morals of young persons. Among other exceptions allowed by the convention, national laws may permit the employment of young persons on light work from the ages of 13 and 15. As regards to its enforcement, all necessary measures are to be taken by the ratifying States to enforce its provisions. On the other hand, Convention 182 lists slavery, debt bondage, prostitution, pornography, forced recruitment of children in armed forces, use of children in drug trafficking and all other works deemed harmful or hazardous to the health and safety of children as the worst forms of child labour. It needs no reiteration that the Nepalese government, as per the international conventions’ injunctions, has not only come up with relevant laws and institutions, but also the requisite mechanisms to abolish child labour—which is a global phenomenon, problem and issue. All this eloquently testifies to its honest commitments to eliminate child labour. Herein, while it is heartening to note that moves are afoot to select Nepal as one of the sample nations to implement time bound programme to eliminate worst forms of child labour, considering the fact that Nepalese government, as always, has been firm in its determination to completely abolish all forms of child labour from the face of the country, the ILO’s latest convention (No.182) is most likely to be ratified in the forthcoming parliamentary sessions.