Parliamentary Session From May 15

-By Our Correspondent

His Majesty the King has summoned the 18th session of the parliament on May 15.

The government’s decision to commence the budget session of the parliament about one month earlier is intended mainly for presenting the budget well before the fiscal year starts.

"This will help in the disbursement of the budget soon after the fiscal year starts," an economist said.

In the past the announcement of the budget coinciding with the start of the fiscal year would result in delays in the allocation of the budget for development programmes.

Meanwhile, the coming session may see the CPN-UML, the main opposition party, resuming their protests inside the House. The last days of the 17th session had seen the UML disrupting the House preceedings demanding among other things the resignation of one state minister Mohammad Aftab Alam.

Although the ruling party and the UML have started negotiations, the rift needs to be solved before the session, if another round of disorder in the parliament is to be avoided.

Reforming The Ailing Administrative Machinery

-By Our Correspondent

‘Right man at the right place’ is the basic principle of good administration. But the principle is hardly followed in the Nepalese bureaucracy.

The lack of a responsive and responsible bureaucracy and also governance institutions are often blamed for the failure of the development programmes, most glaring in the nation’s attempt to fight poverty.

Everybody, including political leaders, intellectuals, general people and even the bureaucrats themselves accept that the country’s bureaucratic system has gone rusty and needs to be restructured and overhauled completely if it is to be made efficient and effective.

How bad is the country’s bureaucracy?

Regarding the situation of present bureaucratic system, former Secretary Bhoj Raj Pokharel says it has become virtually non-functional and unproductive.

"Neither the government is satisfied with the bureaucracy nor are the people for whom it has to work, nor the bureaucrats themselves," he said.

More importantly, the civil service has lost the social prestige it had, Pokharel says.

Another bureaucrat, Chief Secretary of the government Tirtha Man Shakya says the problem with good governance in Nepal is that we don’t have a model.

What ails the bureaucracy?

Secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office Rameshwore Shaha, at a programme last week, said there is a lack of objective evaluation of the civil servants, lack of reward and punishment system, unnecessary growth of organisational structure. The result is, he said, the bureaucracy has failed to make a presence felt among the people.

One of the main allegations against bureaucracy is that it almost become synonym to corruption. Even Pokharel accepts it to a large extent.

"Bureaucrats and civil servants are often found functional when they have a chance to make extra money. In customs offices, you can see the bureaucrats ready to work overtime even without getting additional incentives from the system," Pokharel says.

The reason, he believes, is the low salary which is not adequate to sustain a decent living.

However, the contrary is also true. Many of the civil servants, who are often alleged for corruption, are already well off.

Certainly, good salaries and attractive incentives help to motivate the civil servants, but being corrupt and inefficient is more an attitude than not having enough money.

Another malaise which has afflicted the civil service is the political interference and connections. "When you have a strong political back up, you can easily violate the rules and nobody dares to take action against you," Pokharel says.

Over-politicization of civil service is another allegation. But Secretary at the Defence Ministry, Keshab Rajbhandari said it is not only the politicization of bureaucracy, but also the vice versa, which is hampering the bureaucracy.

There has also been a practice of changing the regulations for the benefit of certain individuals.

How to reform the bureaucracy?

There have been attempts to reform the bureaucracy but they all lacked a clear vision and more importantly commitment. Even an administrative reform commission was formed. But its suggestions have largely been ignored.

Govinda Dhakal, Chief of the Central Department of Public Administration Teaching, TU, says the successive governments have not been psychologically ready to implement the recommendations submitted by the administration reform committees. "They, at the most, are offering only lip services," he says.

The first serious attempt was made soon after the reestablishment of the multi-party democracy, when the government shook up the civil service by introducing new regulation and retiring many senior bureaucrats.

However, senior bureaucrats and others also believe we should get to the basics first if the bureaucracy is to be made efficient in the real sense.

"Meritocracy should also be the part and parcel of the bureaucracy and there must be appropriate provisions for reward and punishment," former secretary Pokharel says. But he says that is rarely found in our bureaucracy.

About depoliticisation of the bureaucracy, he says, all the political parties should firmly commit to let the bureaucracy function independently.

Recently, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala took some step to reform bureaucracy, such as reducing the number of ministries. He has also said that he would implement the recommendations of the commission to reform the country’s administrative machinery.

But Dhakal finds the government’s statement to be contradictory regarding the reformation of administration. "It talks of reformation but at the same time it recruits improper persons to the important positions," Dhakal says.

He says cutting down the size and the numbers of the ministries alone will not be enough to reform the administration. "It has to be made sizable and efficient if it is to be make people-oriented and responsible." Besides, there should be strong legal provisions to punish those who are found involved in corruption and other illegal activities, he says.

The distortions, disfigurements and the deformities have made the bureaucracy as ugly as the Augean Stable. Despite the realisation and demand for its reform, cleaning up the bureaucracy will be a Herculean task.

Law Against Terrorist Journalism?

-By Our Correspondent

Is the government preparing a stringent law to curb journalism supporting Maoist insurgency?

An AFP report quoting several newspapers says yes.

"The press has misused their freedoms granted by the constitution by moving on to terrorist journalism," the AFP quoted The Rising Nepal, the country's premier English daily as said by the Minister for Information and Communications Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta.

Gupta was referring to the news reports which he described as objectional and could psychologically affect the general public.

The Minister was also reported as saying, "If the press community agrees with us then it is no problem. But if it fails then we will have to introduce a law that punishes those involved in terrorist journalism."

The Minister even suggested the Nepal Press Council (NPC) should take matter seriously. An official of the NPC was also quoted by the Agency saying that there were dozens of papers operated by the Maoists.

Meanwhile, according to another report four policemen were killed and three others seriously injured after a mine laid by Maiosts insurgents exploded in Dhuwakot village of Dhading district.

In a separate incident in Rukum three Maoists were shot dead by the police.

RNAC Still Undecided On Lease Deal

-By Our Correspondent

The Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation is yet to decide on the lease tenders for a wide-bodied B-767 300 ER. The tenders were opened on two dates of April 18 and 21.

This is the first big test for the Corporation’s new management. The government has recently reconstituted the RA management appointing Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation Haribhakta Shrestha as the Corporation’s new executive chairman, and Tirtha Lal Shrestha and Siddha Raj Joshi as the members of the RA’s board of directors.

If the tender materialises it will be the first time RA will be leasing planes through tender since it started renting planes several years back.

It is not that RA had not sought the renting done through global tender, but this process had always been avoided for one reason or the other in favour for a more lucrative (to those who make the decision) option of negotiations.

This time too it was the third tender RA had issued globally in the last two months. The first two tenders were cancelled after it failed to get sufficient number of bidders or the bidders had failed to fulfill the RA requirements including the age of the plane and the bid bond.

So, in the third tender the conditions were relaxed regarding the age of the plane from five years to ten years and the bid bond was reduced drastically from the earlier 2.5 per cent of the total leasing amount to US$ 25,000. And there were five bidders, an improvement over the last two.

The bids of four others, namely Babcock & Brown of Ireland, City Bird of Belgium, Nepal Trade Concern and A & H Company were opened on 18th April. The tender of the fifth bidder Annset Worldwide Aviation Services, an Australian Company, was not opened that day because of the suspicion of tampering of the seal of the tender. It was opened three days later on 21st April after it was attested by the National Forensic Laboratory that there was no tampering and the seal was intact.

According to sources, after the opening of the tender, only two bidders Babcock & Brown and Annset emerged as the contenders.

Still the price quoted by Babcock & Brown at US$ 3,576 per flight hour for a minimum of 300 flight hours per month was 524 dollars cheaper than the price of US$ 4,100 offered by Annset.

That means leasing the plane offered by Babcock & Brown for a period of 18 months will come out almost Rs. 200 million (2.8296 million dollars to be exact) cheaper than the Annset plane.

Sources at RA say, the price quoted by the lowest bidder comes out even cheaper by US$ 3 per seat than the B-757, RA is currently leasing.

According to a RA source, in such a case one would go straight for the lowest bidder if the technical and other specifications are sound and as per the demand of the RA. May be the RA management is evaluating the technical and other aspects. But with RA still remaining undecided, doubts have started creeping up whether a different ball game is being played.

There are enough examples in the past of RA failing to honour the tenders on one or the other pretext.

Although the RNAC may still have some time to make a decision, but a quick decision will settle doubts and rumours about will it or won’t it.

The delay has already kicked up speculations that the RA may back off from the tender one more time. If this happens the RA’s already dwindling reputation will spiral down further.

RA insiders blame lack of credibility and integrity for failing to attract reputed and significant number of bidders in its earlier tenders.

If RA falters to honour its business commitment this time too, it will not be surprising if companies with even a speck of reputation and integrity refuses to do business with RNAC.

Meanwhile, according to a reliable source, the Boeing 767 300 ER that RNAC is seeking, is in short supply in the world market. And if the RA doesnot act quickly other airlines may snap up the planes leaving RA high and dry again.

Govt. To Resume Food Supply

-By Our Correspondent

Ultimately the government followed the directive of the Public Accounts Committee regarding latter’s stand of withdrawing the decision to scrap food depots from the remote areas of the country.

The government had, from December 31, 1999, terminated some 67 food depots citing financial burden and that it would follow the recommendation of the Asian Development Bank, the financier for the food supply.

According to sources, the ADB had pressurised on the government to remove the food depots so that the people there would learn to be independent.

The government last week decided to supply foodstuffs to the remote parts of the country keeping in mind the increasing demand of foodstuffs in those areas and lack of other infrastructures which stop them from becoming independent in terms of foodstuff.

"We have honestly decided to follow the direction of the PAC and have made necessary arrangements in supplying foodstuffs in those areas," Minister for Commerce, Industry and Supplies Ram Krishna Tamrakar clarified to the PAC meeting on Friday regarding the case.

Minister Tamrakar informed that the government has asked the employees of the National Food Corporation (NFC) to distribute the foodstuffs to the needy people the way they had been doing earlier.

He also informed the meeting that the government has also decided to increase the annual quota by 15 per cent. Meanwhile, he said that the government would also seek private parties for supplying foodstuffs in the remotest part of the Kingdom like the Karnali zone.

It may here be recalled that the government has to make a huge subsidies while supplying food in those areas. Meanwhile, it also can’t be forgotten that it is also the responsibility of the government to supply food at a subsidised price to the areas where there are food deficits and transportation problem.

The National Food Corporation has been supplying foodstuff, mainly rice, to nearly 35 outlying districts of the country for more than two decades viewing the food shortage problem and the problem with the transportation as well.

Rhino Census Begins

-By Our Correspondent

In collaboration with King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation (KMTNC), the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) started the census of greater one-horned rhinoceros in and around Royal Chitwan National Park (RCNP) with financial support of WWF Nepal Programme and GEF/UNDP from Friday (April 28).

According to a press release issued, a central coordination committee consisting of the representatives of WWF Nepal Programme, KMTNC and DNPWC has been formed for the census under the chairmanship of the Director General of DNPWC Dr. Tirtha Man Maskey.

Likewise, a field-level task force headed by Gopal Prasad Upadhyaya chief warden of RCNP, consists of Narayan Prasad Poudel, senior ecologist, conservation officer Mahednra Kumar Shrestha, ecologist Mahednra. B. Pradhan, Dr. Mukesh Kumar Chalise, Dr. Kamal Gaire, Bal Krishna Giri of DNPWC, Dr. Shanta R. Jnawali KMTNC. Top Bahadur Khatri of NCRTC and Anil Manandhar of WWF Nepal Programme.

Similarly, 20 domesticated elephants are being used with the help of 60 elephant staff for the operation. The count is expected to continue for the next 4-5 weeks. RCNP, established in 1973, consists of a diversity of ecosystems, and is the prime habitat for the second largest rhino population in the world. Rhinos also live in the community ad buffer zone forest areas in Chitwan.

The Rhino Count’94 estimated 446-466 with an annual growth rate of 3.7 per cent. DNPWC, WWF and Resource Nepal had jointly conducted it. The recently concluded rhino count in Bardiya National Park found 67 rhinos in the park.