National 4 (Spotlight Weekly)

“The Basic Challenge Of Our National Development Today Is The Social Exclusion”

— Dr. Bimal Prasad Koirala

Dr. Bimal Prasad Koirala, 48, is the chief secretary of His Majesty’s Government of Nepal. A career bureaucrat with wide experience as well as a renowned poet, Dr. Koirala has done his Ph. D. in Economic Planning. A science student who aimed to become a profession, Dr. Koirala, however, switched to civil service in 1978 as a section officer in the Ministry of Forestry and Soil Conservation. He worked in different ministries under different capacities in the subsequent years. Dr. Koirala spoke to KESHAB POUDEL and SANJAYA DHAKAL on various issues relating to Nepalese civil service. Excerpts:

As a career bureaucrat at senior-most position, how do you reflect on the set-up of Nepalese civil service?

The Nepalese civil service is still in the process of evolving. I often say that our civil service is still immature, a lot is yet to be developed. Until and unless it is made a self-functional and self-regulatory body, we will not be able to fulfill our development expectations. Therefore, there is a need to orient our civil service towards a matured and stabilized bureaucracy.

Nepalese bureaucracy has worked in closed system in the past and is now working in an open system. How do you look at this?

Working in open system and democratic set-up is both challenging as well as full of opportunities. In open system, bureaucracy is more accountable; it has to face queries from elected representatives as well as media. So, the bureaucracy becomes more geared up and accountable. All this depends on how you adjust.

So, has it been able to cope with the political change adequately?

It has been coping well but not to the extent desired. The bureaucracy is not reforming or evolving in adequate manner. I think, the speed of this evolution has been slow.

What could be the reasons for this slow pace?

First and foremost, there is no clear demarcation between the bureaucracy and the politically appointed arm of the executive. Due to lack of this demarcation, we sometime find there is a reversal of role. For instance, the ministers, who should be more concerned with policy-making are found engaging in administrative tasks like making transfer orders and so on and vice versa. There is a confusion in this aspect, which has slowed down things a bit. Secondly, there is also a lack of accountability. The bureaucracy is accountable to people indirectly. They are accountable to people through ministers. If they are made directly accountable to public, perhaps things would be much better. Thirdly, there are issues of transparency. Nepalese civil service has faced open system after functioning under closed system for long. So, transparency is still a lot less than desired. Because of these very reasons, the system of the civil service could not set in and there are still confusion regarding its accountability and responsibility.

The government is pushing for administrative reform roadmap where it has also included provision to provide reservation for women, Dalit and indigenous people. Don’t you think introducing reservation could be counter-productive?

The basic challenge of our national development today is the social exclusion. Women, Dalit and indigenous people do not have proper representation in our decision-making process. This has made our civil service one-dimensional and dominated by only certain communities. The challenge before us, therefore, was how to include those left-out communities and make them part of our collective decision-making and policy-framing body. Given the structure and the function of the civil service, we have to be clever when adopting policies like reservation so that merit also will not be compromised while ensuring the participation of excluded communities.

What are the major functions and responsibilities of chief secretary?

The position of chief secretary is undefined. On the surface, it appears that the chief secretary is entrusted with preparing papers for the cabinet meeting and so on. But if you look at the division of jobs in Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, it is unclear at most. There is no separate legal mandate of the chief secretary. Therefore, chief secretary limits himself to the job of coordination and relation. After I assumed this office, I have given more emphasis on the coordination aspect. I am also trying to include many other things, which a chief secretary can better do, under his domain.

How do you respond to the charges of political interventions in bureaucracy?

Well, until and unless the civil service becomes autonomous and as long as there is no clear demarcation regarding its duties and responsibilities, there will always be room for political intervention and role reversal.

You were a science student. How come you decided to pursue a career in civil service?

I think it was an accident. My aim was to be involved in the teaching profession. But since I used to be sharp in General Knowledge, my friends used to coerce me to join the civil service. That was how I joined the civil service. But once I joined the service, I did everything I could to make the best out of this career.

Currently, a large number of government secretaries seems to have come from revenue/finance stream. Are there any particular reasons for that?

Not many but yes there are quite a few secretaries who have finance background. In our administrative service, a secretary is chosen based on certain eligibilities and experience. And then they are chosen on the basis of merit-points they get. It so happened that at this point of time, most of those chosen candidates earlier worked in the finance stream. But this may not be so in the days ahead. I see that there are a lot of young eligible candidates from other streams (who are in the list) for promotion next year.

We have a system here whereupon it is portrayed as if the civil service is inherently corrupt. Laws and regulations are also framed based on this assumption. What do you say?

Basically, the civil service is governed by the Civil Service Act. The Act does not have provisions of rewards or points of motivation. It only has provisions stating that if you do this, you will be penalized. So, the whole bureaucracy has been shrouded in negativism. There is, therefore, an ardent need to introduce positive-orientation so that the bureaucracy can better deliver development services. There is a clear need to make amendments in the Act as well.

Don’t you think the state itself has such perceptions given the necessity for each bureaucrats to file their property report annually?

Our whole structure is aimed at controlling. It should be changed to make it promotional and facilitating kind. Our foundation is based on negativism and cynicism. We must get out of that shell. Laws should be framed after analyzing how the bureaucracy can positively contribute to the country’s development.

It is said that the civil service has been unable to attract best and brightest young people. Why is it so?

It is true that civil service has ceased being the career of first choice. Even I do not tell my son to become a bureaucrat quite unlike the practice prevalent here where a teacher’s son becomes teacher, a doctor’s son becomes doctor and so on. There are many reasons for this. One is there are lots of job opportunities outside the bureaucracy today. Competent people, therefore, get attracted to lucrative job offers outside. Whereas in civil service the pay is not good and the career prospects not clearly defined. I see the need to change syllabus also. There is a genuine fear that bureaucracy could be filled with only the mediocre and back-benchers leading to a fall in its quality and efficiency in the days ahead. Therefore, there is an urgent need to change the existing incentive structures and introduce performance-paying system.

How has the frequent changes in the bureaucracy affected the development process?

It has negatively affected our development process. Frequent changes are never good. Even transfers should not be frequent. There is a need to frame transfer policy of predictable system.

How do you find the development process at present?

Some reforms have been achieved. Because of this we also got the PRSC project from the World Bank. But looking at the Nepal’s development efforts, it is clear that our reform efforts are neither adequate nor speedily achieved. New reforms should be initiated in a quick manner. Only then can we achieve the goal of poverty alleviation.

You are also a well-known poet. Don’t you think sometimes the sentiments of a poet interfere in your professional work?

While the works of administration are more associated with decision-making, that of poet are more close to emotions. The decision-making process should not be affected by your emotions. So, when I engage in administrative errands, I leave behind the poet inside me. But, certainly emotions sometime affect you. This year I only wrote 7 to 8 poems compared to my dense writings in the decades of 1970s and 1980s.