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COVER STORY |
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COVER STORY |
CIVIL
SERVANT Low pay, a deficient
reward-and-punishment system and excessive politicization are pushing Nepal's civil
service through a very difficult phase. At a time when civil servants have to prove their
loyalty and integrity to more than half a dozen institutions, how can one expect an
accountable and impartial bureaucracy? Amid vague definition of roles, responsibility,
accountability and a gripping sense of insecurity, the civil service is at the crossroads.
Any clean-up operation needs to go hand in hand with a broader reform package. When will
the government, politicians, investigative authority and civil society try to understand
the civil service in a holistic manner? By KESHAB POUDEL Krishna Kumar Shrestha (not his real name),
a helper at a government office, gets Rs.3,000 (equivalent to US$38) as monthly salary.
Living at his boss's home, he does not have to buy his own food, tiffin and clothes.
Shrestha, who works as a part time cook, is a lucky to have a boss he can depend upon.
"I don't have to pay house rent,
transport charges or buy food, as I get everything at my officer's home," said
Shrestha. At work, too, Shrestha has a clear advantage. Unlike his colleagues, he does not
have to obey many bosses. "Nobody asks me to do additional work, because they know
who I work for." Technically, Shrestha is supposed to be
accountable and responsible to his immediate boss for his actions. But in actual practice,
he does not have to be answerable to anybody as long as he has the blessings of the big
boss. Shrestha makes some extra money fetching tea to other officials. "I make a
profit of Rs.20-30 per day depending on how many cups of tea I have to bring. This money
helps me buy cigarettes," Shrestha said. "I could provide better service if I
could get respectable salary," he adds. Shrestha is hardly representative of civil
servants in his position. Many senior and junior employees have to rely on various support
systems to make ends meet and to secure their official positions. A large number of civil
servants depend on ancestral property to meet the deficit in the household budget. For
those without supplementary sources of income, life becomes inherently difficult. The monthly salary a non-gazetted employee
draws is not sufficient to sustain normal life in the city. In the absence of a credible
system of accountability and a strong structural process in the midst of financial
insecurity, there is a clear tendency to shift responsibility. Ultimately, the losers are
the country and the people.
Essentially, being a civil servant is
a matter prestige. It represents the honor of the state. This is why many people choose a
career with the bureaucracy with the knowledge that the salary is low. But this trend is
fading in recent years, with people increasingly turning to other professions in the
private sector. Lack of discipline and hostile working
conditions, too, are discouraging promising youth from considering a career in government
service. In a clear sign of the changing times, few offspring of former senior bureaucrats
can be found in the civil service these days. Initiative Of Reform The term reform is not new in Nepal's civil
service. Since the political changes of 1950, Nepal has seen many commission and
committees set up to reform the civil-service system. One can see many changes in the
civil service, but efficiency and promptness are not part of them. In the absence of firm
commitment from the political leadership, the changes have mostly been confined to paper. Under pressure from international donors,
too, the government has introduced reforms in the civil service. The pay scale was revised
three years ago, with an increase of up to 60 percent in monthly salaries and other
facilities. The reform included a reduction of the number of civil servants, amendment of
the Civil Service and Corruption Prevention Acts and other packages. The number of
ministries was reduced from 26 to 21 in mid-2000. Some 5,000 vacant positions were frozen
and 1,045 other posts were added in fiscal year 2001, with the aim of saving US$2.4
million. But the package proved to be too little and
too late, since it was introduced at a time when the civil service was on the verge of
collapse because of indiscipline, anarchy, political intervention and break-up of the
chain of command. Supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the new Governance Reform
Program is trying to implement some new measures, including the down-sizing of the
bureaucracy, improvement of the legal framework, proper distribution of work, revisions in
pay and anti-corruption legislation. Despite these changes, the civil service is
yet to deliver visible results. Overstaffing continues to obstruct the reform process and
political intervention and lack of clear job distribution have worsened the situation.
Fundamentally, a civil servant does not have a clear mandate as to whom he is accountable
and responsible to in day-to-day work. An official is removed and replaced without
justification. Many offices are mired in anarchy and indiscipline, but senior officials
are hardly in a position to take any action against such individuals. "We have all
kinds of reform packages right now, as the government has increased the salary and brought
out new Civil Service and Corruption Prevention Acts. What is required now is political
commitment and determination to bring about desired change," says Mukunda P. Aryal,
former secretary to the Ministry of General Administration. Where Is Accountability? Theoretically, an employee is responsible
and accountable to his immediate boss for his actions. But in practice, he or she is
answerable to more than a dozen institutions and individuals, including political parties
(ruling and opposition), court, people, press, ministers, secretaries, immediate boss,
unions and anti-corruption bodies and donors. The uncertainty and insecurity this sows
erodes the capacity of the civil-service system to do the job it was originally set up to
do. "Unless clear guidelines and working
procedures are developed and a strong reward-and-punishment system strictly followed, I
cannot foresee any improvement in the performance of the civil service," says former
secretary Shree Ram Poudel, who has served in various ministries. "At a time when a
civil servant does not know who is he accountable and responsible to, increasing the pay
scale alone is not enough to motivate employees." A sense of virtual anarchy set in the civil
service following the restoration of democracy in 1990. The newly empowered ministers and
politicians broke the chain of command in almost all the ministries, as they started
picking civil servants not under the basis of seniority and efficiency but under political
considerations. "When the chain of command was broken,
even a non-gazetted second class employee became more powerful than the secretary at the
ministry," says a former secretary, on condition of anonymity. "Many secretaries
were removed because they tried to withstand unnecessary pressure from junior staff." A civil service built systematically over
30 years was destroyed following the restoration of democracy. "After the formation
of the Mallik Commission, we were treated as the devil and evil forces of Panchayat,"
says Shree Man Shrestha, a senior official who was dismissed in 1993 and reinstated by the
court in 1995. "Many secretaries were insulted by junior staff in front of ministers.
When senior bureaucrats are demoralized in such a way, they cannot implement an efficient
reward-and-punishment policy. The civil service has totally gone out of control." Unless the government demonstrates greater
commitment to establishing the rule of law and restoring the chain of command, allowing
the civil service to function in its way, nothing can be expected to bring substantial
change. From downsizing the bureaucracy to improving efficiency, reforms require a certain
degree of political determination. Civil, Evil or Devil Nobody disputes that the civil service is
in dire need of some sort of clean-up operation, especially to minimize corruption-related
cases. However, the manner in which the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority
(CIAA) recently raided the houses of civil servants under the Ministry of Finance has
created panic and fear and projected employees as the devil and evil of society. Had a reward-and-punishment system and
chain of command functioned properly in the ministries, no agency would have been needed
to produce confused and contradictory statements about the raids on and recovery of
property. "The system must be allowed to function in the whole civil service so that
top-level officials can observe the behavior of his or her juniors, in order to reward and
punish according to performance," says Poudel. "The CIAA cannot do this over the
long term. It is up to the concerned ministry to regularly monitor the behavior and
performance of its employees." The CIAA raids and the subsequent media
hype have sparked widespread confusion among civil servants in all departments. The
episode has heightened a sense of insecurity among employees, who feel they have no one to
defend the institution. In the name of cracking down on certain individuals involved in
wrong practices, there is a risk of systematically ruining the entire system. Corruption exists in various forms and
content almost everywhere. But the singling out of Ministry of Finance employees threatens
to have a negative impact on revenue collection at a time when the country already is in
deep economic trouble. "People must be taught that the civil service is there to
serve their interests and that the state pays civil servants to serve the people,"
says Aryal. Hate Campaign? Following the August 16 raids on the homes
of 22 suspected officials, the media and civil society have launched what increasingly
resembles a hate campaign against civil servants. Some newspapers have started publishing
the names of hundreds of people as potential targets of the CIAA. The country was never without
anti-corruption legislation. In the past, too, occasional raids were conducted and some
suspects were detained. Faulty investigative procedures often led to the acquittal of
suspects by the courts. In the absence of regular monitoring and execution of the acts,
cases of misuse of authority and corruption increased. Unless a complete system is
developed and activated all the time, such haphazard intervention would generate a sense
of insecurity among civil servants, undermining their ability to do their job. "Since there is a Civil Service Act,
Anti-Corruption Act and other legislation to arrest suspects, to try the accused and to
confiscate property, I don't understand why there is such media hype," says a senior
official, who insists he not be further identified. "Are we alone responsible for
this situation or is there a systemic flaw?" he asks. "The CIAA's action has generated hope
among the people that the corrupt cannot go scot-free. Unless a certain degree of
discipline is maintained and job distribution is defined, sporadic action cannot bring
substantial change in the service," says Poudel. It is a crime against the state to misuse
public funds for personal benefit. But it is certainly not a crime to be a civil servant.
The suspects arrested during this month's CIAA raids are yet to be produced before the
court, but they are already presumed to be criminals. In casting suspicion on certain
individuals, the entire civil-service system is being projected in a bad light. If the state portrays a civil servant as a
presumed criminal, how can there be honesty and integrity in the bureaucracy. "The
government and the CIAA have to regularly monitor the situation and take action against
those involved in unlawful acts," says Aryal. "If we control corruption in the
higher rungs, it will automatically be reduced at the lower levels." Destabilization of Civil Service Nepal's civil service, like the political
process, has never had the opportunity to gain stability. Greater the instability it has
faced, the worse its performance. The civil service was convulsed when more than 15,000
employees were given voluntary retirement in 1993. This action sparked a feeling of
insecurity among bureaucrats and encouraged systemic chaos. Today's civil service lies on the bedrock
of the autocratic Rana regime, which had an annual hire-and-fire system. Officialdom moved
toward taking a new shape only after the overthrow of the Rana regime in 1951, when modern
concepts of management and administration were introduced. In the last 50 years, however,
the bureaucracy has been demoralized over different periods of time, largely because of
the political imperatives of the moment. Whenever authorities want to take populist
steps, they find the civil service the best place to start. Be it the all-powerful CIAA or
a popular political leader, the bureaucracy has always been victimized. If we consider the
cases of the last 10 years, the civil service has received a series of blows from various
bodies, which has created greater chaos and uncertainty. Apart from job and financial insecurity,
the civil service suffers from a lack of demarcation of job responsibility, division of
work, allocation of authority. Employees have to go through various difficult phases
before they can retire gracefully. Even after retirement, they may land in trouble. Following the restoration of democracy,
interim prime minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai began his clean-up campaign in the civil
service, dismissing more than 100 employees, including the chief secretary, secretaries
and other gazetted and non-gazetted officers. Prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala took a
similar step by dismissing more than 14,000 civil servants on the plea of cleaning up the
bureaucracy. Now the CIAA has struck another blow to the civil service in the name of
eradicating corruption. The civil service is in dire need of reform
and eradication of corruption should be the priority. While the law and regulations permit
the CIAA to investigate and prosecute the corrupt, it cannot be allowed to exercise its
authority to terrorize individuals. As long as the government machinery
supposed to monitor the civil servants remains idle, campaigns like the one the CIAA has
currently embarked would fizzle over time. "There should be regular monitoring and
evaluation," says a government official. Demoralized and Insecure Political compulsions share part of the
blame. "In many cases, ministers consult the staff affiliated with his political
party and ideology. My driver was the adviser of my minister. The driver was consulted
before final decisions on removal, transfer of employees and other matters were
taken," says a retired senior official. "Since the non-gazetted employees are
more numerous and organized through unions, they are the decisive force." Low pay, poorly defined roles and
responsibilities, weak institutional back-up and non-existence of a reward-and-punishment
system have demoralized the civil service. Frequent political intervention has fostered
job insecurity and encouraged employees to go on the wrong path. In the lower rungs, the
only problems are low pay and undefined role. For gazetted officers, the stakes are higher
as the minister can transfer them, largely at will. "Our so-called civil society members,
who are highly paid in foreign currency, and some retired senior bureaucrats talk a lot
about corruption in the civil service. But no one talks about the reasons behind the
spread of corruption," says a retired secretary, on condition of anonymity. "Our
civil service has been paralyzed. If civil society and political parties do not protect
them, it will collapse. We must treat the ailing bureaucracy by identifying the disease
and administering the medicine it needs." Low Pay and Less Work Non-gazetted officials and officer helpers
comprise a large segment of employees. They have low salaries and have virtually no chance
to go on foreign trips. Non-gazetted officers have either to rely on ancestral property or
put in additional hours at work to make ends meet. If nothing is available, they are at
risk of going astray. Corruption in revenue collection and public
relations offices, development organizations and law-enforcement agencies is not a new
phenomenon. There is a practice of giving tip in offices where employees have to work 24
hours a day, without being able to claim overtime payments. "If the government had
ever considered their difficulties, it would have compensated them for their additional
work and checked all unlawful practices," says a senior former employee. According to the Ministry of General
Administration, the total size of Nepal's civil service is estimated at 105,000 approved
posts, of which about 90,000 are currently occupied. Approximately 90 percent of civil
servants are in the non-gazetted (support staff) category. Of this group, almost 35percent
are cleaning staff and messengers. Only 10 percent of the civil servants are at officer
level. Training, foreign trips, promotion, reward
and punishment are not given on the basis of performance. They are almost always based on
political affiliation or personal preferences. Some non-gazetted employees go on foreign
trips more regularly than their gazetted counterparts. Civil-service pay comprised approximately
20 percent of the total government budget in fiscal year 2001. Two years ago, the
government improved wage scales, with salary increases between 50 and 88 percent from peon
to secretary. The compression ratio for wages increased from 3.1 to 3.6 for salaries and
from 2.9 to 3.3 for take-home pay. The reform measures were based on recommendation
presented to the ADB Board of Directors and president on a proposed loan to Nepal for the
Governance Reform program. "The state has been paying higher
salaries to make the bureaucracy more efficient. But salary is not a determining factor
here. We need to develop a mechanism thorough which one can feel that the system will
automatically work to take action against wrongdoers," says Aryal. "You cannot
link the pay scale with corruption." As long as there are a sense of insecurity,
absence of a clear structural system and ill-defined roles, the civil service will always
fall under haphazard action. This in turn will bring greater chaos and uncertainty in the
entire system. Any operation needs to have a holistic approach. |
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editor: spotligh@mos.com.np |
