Govt to compensate if public denied timely services

KATHMANDU, Oct 7: Not many people have a pleasant experience when it comes to acquiring services from government offices. Many share the frustration of having to undergo unnecessary hassles from dilly-dallying government employees for services that they are entitled to in a timely fashion.



If you are among those who have experienced such hassles, here is a piece of good news. The government, as part of its good governance effort, recently introduced a policy of citizens´ charters with a provision for compensation to avert such unpleasant experiences. [break]



The latest government initiative not only makes it mandatory for every government office to put a citizen´s charter that clearly spells out the timeframe, the authorized official and service charges, if any, for administering each service it provides, but also states the compensation payable in case of delay in providing a given service in the stipulated time. The compensation amount is recovered from the official who is supposed to have provided the service.



According to the Directives on Citizens´ Charter published recently in the Nepal Gazette along with a provision on compensation, service seekers who are genuinely denied services on time are entitled to receive a maximum of Rs 5,000 as compensation. The Directives state that such compensation shall not be less than the one day´s minimum wage-- i.e. Rs 318 -- fixed by the government.



There are four different levels of compensation committees, including at district, regional, ministerial and prime ministerial levels, to determine the compensation amount, according to the Directives, which have been introduced as a part of the Good Governance Act, 2006.



Victims can file complaints at the concerned district administration office in case they are denied timely services from the district level offices of different line ministries. While those denied timely services from the district administration office or the zonal or regional offices of various ministries can file for compensation at the concerned regional administrator´s office, service seekers can knock on the doors of the ministry concerned in Kathmandu if they are denied service on time from a department or other office headed by a special class officer.



However, in case of timely service denial by a regional administrator´s office, victims can directly petition the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers for compensation. The petitions can also be made online or through other electronic media. Such petitions need to be responded to and cleared within seven days.



Though there is a provision for recovering the compensation amount from the government officials responsible for the delay, the government in the Directive published in the Nepal Gazette on September 16 has also worked out a plan to set up a separate fund for providing compensation to the victims. This fund will be used, among other things, for providing compensation when service seekers are made to suffer a loss for reasons other than weaknessess or shortcomings on the part of the government officials concerned.



Secretary at Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers Krishna Hari Banskota on Monday announced the implementation of the Citizens´ Charter with the compensation provision, at the Department of Commerce and Supply Management, which is the seventh government body to implement the newly-introduced measure meant to ensure good governance.



The government has already implemented the policy at the Department of Archaeology, Department of Transport Management, Department of Foreign Employment, Department of Land Revenue, Department of Food Technology and Quality Control and the Survey Department.



Former bureaucrats, however, see the move as an attempt by the current government to gain cheap popularity. “Though it is good in principle, the concept of a citizens´ charter with compensation is not pragmatic in our context. We have neither created the necessary mechanisms for its implementation nor have we provided orientation on this to government officials working at the grass-root level,” argued former secretary Mod Raj Dotel.



Dotel, who has worked at the Home Ministry for several years, added that protection for civil servants, who toil hard to bring government services to the far-flung villages, is also an equally important aspect for motivate them. “Who would be prepared to work in a situation where there is a general tendency among people to accuse government employees of delay in providing their services?” he asked.

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