FEATURES NEWS THE RISING NEPAL (DAILY)

Good Governance
Political Commitment Essential

By Uttam Maharjan

GOOD governance would mean good administration aiming at maximising public welfare. In fact, the main aim of governance is to ensure that administration works like clockwork in accordance with the rule of law, which includes justice, impartiality and equality.

In fact, good administration is responsible, efficient and just, and susceptible to public needs, desires and problems. This implies that the public gets relief from their administration. Good governance ignores individual interests for the sake of collective interests on the basis of the welfare state concept.

For good governance, those at the top echelon of administration should be honest, scrupulous and responsible. They should leave no stone unturned to discharge their responsibilities honestly and efficiently. They should give up perfunctory discharge of responsibilities and dereliction of duty.

These days honesty, integrity and probity in public life are taking a back seat. So are credibility and decency. Good characters are required to conduct administration smoothly and efficiently. Those who are corrupt cannot guide the public effectively. Corruption is eroding the good administration.

Corruption is more widespread in the developing countries than in the developed ones. It is due to corruption that foreign aid to the developing countries often goes down the drain. To optimally utilise resources, corruption must come to an end. This is possible only through good governance. Good governance is instrumental in sloughing off nonchalant attitudes and running development projects smoothly. After all, honest discharge of duty would deter corruption and irregularities.

The South Asian region, which is inhabited by 25 per cent of the world population, is now undergoing a good governance crisis due to poverty and corruption, coupled with illiteracy, gender bias, malnutrition, racial discrimination and a delay in dispensing justice. As such, the social, economic and political conditions of this region are serious. There is an economic crisis, low progress in agriculture and industry and an unfavourable balance of trade.

The government should take the initiative in controlling corruption. And opposition parties should also cooperate with the ruling party in corruption control. It would be worth noting that in recent times donor countries and agencies have complained about rampant corruption in the implementation of development projects run with the aid money. They are now concerned about the proper utilisation of such aid money. The World Bank tends to link development assistance with good governance in every sector so that there may not be an unnecessary delay in the implementation of development projects and the quality of the projects may be maintained.

Bureaucracy, an important component of good governance, is an executive organ of the government that implements its plans, policies and programmes. It is due to lack of efficient and responsible bureaucracy that development projects often fail to materialise. It would be disappointing to note that it is often treated as synonymous with corruption in our society. That is why, reform measures are needed to make bureaucracy more effective.

The civil service, the lifeblood of bureaucracy, is bloated due to the haphazard recruitment of employees through nepotism, favouritism and other unfair means. There is an unnecessary growth of organisational structures and incompetent people are appointed to top posts. Meritocracy

has thus crumbled away in the civil service. And objective appraisal of civil servants is lacking and a carrot-and-stick policy is not in order.

Soon after the restoration of multiparty democracy in the country in 1990, a shake-up was effected in the civil service by introducing new rules and retiring some senior employees. The administrative Reform Commission was constituted in 2048 B.S. under the chairmanship of the then Premier Girija Prasad Koirala and its report was submitted to the government towards the end of that year. Prior to this several administrative reform commissions had also been formed. But the reports of such commissions were not honestly implemented.

Similarly, the suggestions on curtailing unnecessary expenditures of government bodies given by the Public Expenditure Review Commission (PERC) are yet to be implemented.

In our society, the general public is not organised enough to resist mal-administration. Action at citizens’ level is essential to expose the activities of corrupt administrators. The Civil society, which has grown in importance since the 1990s, can act as a pressure group to dissuade corrupt administration by sensitising people to their rights and duties and identifying and eliminating social aberrations. In fact, efficient civil society assists in maintaining good governance. It could be a good bedfellow of the government.

To enthuse the general public over good governance, local bodies should be strengthened so that they may render prompt and efficient services to the general public at local level. The general public should also be given a chance to participate in the decision-making process. This would help identify themselves with the development process more enthusias-tically.

For economic growth, economic and governance is essential, which conceives of economic development by ending economic exploitation, developing a system of equitable distribution of wealth, optimally utilising available resources and utilising foreign aid in an effective and transparent manner.

It would be worth noting at this juncture that the Enabling State Programmes (ESP), launched in 1997 in cooperation with the DFID, is concerned with improving governance and empowering civil society. It aims at promoting pro-poor governance by involving people in the advocacy of administration reforms and in the formulation and implementation of development projects.

To promote good governance, a strong political commitment is indispensable. Nothing will come out until administrators themselves realise that a change for the better is necessary to reshape and streamline the administrative machinery.

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