The two-month stand-off between the ministers reached a climax after Finance Minister Pandey rejected a decision taken by Minister Shrestha recently. The decision of the Ministry of General Administration (MoGA) to transfer nearly 200 employees, including nearly 100 to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and offices under it, was rejected by Minister Pandey.
The transfers are in limbo as Pandey rejected Shrestha´s decision.
Pandey has warned Shrestha in writing that he won´t accept any decision on transfer of civil servants if it is taken without his ministry´s consent. “I will flatly reject your ministry´s decisions if the trend of transferring government employees to my ministry continues,” reads a letter sent by Pandey.
Bishnu Prasad Lamsal, joint secretary and chief of administration section at MoF, has also signed the letter.
Pandey has cited some reasons behind his stance rejecting MoGA´s decision. “There are a number of instances of MoGA transferring dozens of government employees to MoF without consulting us,” states the letter dispatched by Pandey. “Such a hasty decision has added the extra burden of adjusting employees upon us.” The two ministers were not available for comment.
According to MoF, there are already more than 120 government employees under the ministry whose postings have been pending for the last six months.
A senior official at MoF claimed that MoGA´s motive behind transferring government employees there is linked with making money. “Many civil servants want to work under the Department of Revenue Investigation, the Department of Inland Revenue and various customs offices to make money," said a source.
Applications submitted at MoGA by government employees seeking such transfers lend credence to the MoF official´s allegation.
According to officials, more than 80 percent of civil servants are seeking transfers to the revenue collection, inland revenue and customs offices under MoF.
The friction between the two ministers has also affected other work at those ministries.
Files submitted by MoGA are pending at MoF. Similarly, MoF´s decisions are ignored by MoGA.
MoF did not give its consent in time to a file that aims at renaming MoGA as Human Resource Ministry. MoF has only just approved the file, after a lapse of three months.
On the other hand, MoGA is also not acting as promptly as MoF wants. MoGA did not approve decisions taken by Minister Pandey to change officials within his ministry.
MoGA took nearly a month to give its consent to the promotion of Mahesh Dahal to Director General at the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI).
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