Ten secretary-level posts still vacant

KATHMANDU, Aug 30: As many as 10 secretary-level posts have remained vacant for over a month now due to delay on the part of the government in amending the Civil Service Regulations to bring them in line with the recently amended Civil Service Act.

Secretary-level posts are currently vacant at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Labor and Employment, Nepal Trust, President's Office, Vice President's Office, Office of Auditor General, National Vigilance Centre, Water and Energy Commission, Public Procurement Monitoring Office and the Western Regional Administration Office. As a result, regular business and administrative work at these offices remain affected.


A week ago, the Ministry of General Administration (MoGA) submitted its recommendations for amendments to the Civil Service Regulations to the Cabinet's bills committee. But as the committee is yet to decide on some provisions in the regulations, a bill concerning the regulations has yet to be forwarded to the Cabinet for final approval. This has delayed the appointment of secretaries. There is a provision under which the government should approve new secretaries within 15 days of the posts falling vacant.

The recently amended Civil Service Act has a provision that says civil servants from now onwards shall be transferred or promoted only within the service category in which they started their career.

The fourth amendment to the Civil Service Act has six service categories for special class (secretary level) civil servants -- Nepal Administrative Service, Nepal Agriculture and Forest Service, Nepal Legal Service, Nepal Foreign Service, Nepal Engineering Service and Nepal Auditor Service.

"The act bars civil servants from transferring from one service to another but the law does not state which ministries will come under a particular service group. So, it is taking time to classify all the ministries to fit into the service categories," said Krishna Sharma, under-secretary at MoGA.

An official at the ministry said top government employees appointed under the engineering service have been pressing to include more ministries under that service as fewer ministries would mean fewer secretary-level posts; and a larger number of joint-secretaries would have to compete for those posts.

So far, special-class officers were eligible for transfer to other service categories. Officials would change their service category to get into lucrative ministries such as the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"As we could not finalize the ministries for each service category, we have decided to consult the Public Service Commission. We will formally ask the commission for its advice on Monday. We may finalize the regulations bill by next week," said Raju Man Singh Malla, secretary at the Cabinet's bills committee.

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