The Nepal Government (Work Division) Regulations 2069 BS unveiled recently has brought all five RAOs directly under the purview of the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, through an amendment to the erstwhile provision that kept them under the Home Ministry. [break]
“The regional administration offices, which used to act like liaison offices, are now empowered to monitor development work as well as day-to-day government activities in the region concerned,” said officials at the prime minister´s office.
Officials said the regional administrators, who are special class gazetted officers, are entrusted with issuing necessary directives to the government field offices and line ministries concerned on the basis of the findings of their inspections. “As the regional administration offices are also entrusted with the task of reporting directly to the prime minister´s office on the day-to-day security situation as well as other developments in the region, they do not need to rely solely on the budget allocated by the Home Ministry,” officials further said.
Earlier, the RAOs required to function under the budget ceiling set by the Home Ministry.
The special class officers who were deputed as regional administration officers would often shy away from taking up their responsibilities, arguing that it was an office literally without any powers. It is believed that the new provision giving the RAOs more teeth will help encourage government officers to take up those posts.
Officials say the new arrangement bringing the RAOs under the prime minister´s office will also help resolve hierarchy problems.
The regional administrators would feel awkward working under officers of the same level as themselves when their offices were under the Home Ministry. “Since they will now work under the chief secretary, they will no longer feel any problem of hierarchy,” a senior official at the Home Ministry said. “Leave for the regional administrators will now be sanctioned by the chief secretary.”
However, former bureaucrats do not buy this argument. They say that there was never any problem of hierarchy. “Though the chiefs of the Nepal Police, the Armed Police Force and the National Investigation Department are also special class officers, there was never any problem of hierarchy,” said former home secretary Govind Prasad Kusum.
Kusum said the government´s decision to bring the RAOs under the prime minister´s office does not augur well. “The National Vigilance Center, which is already under the prime minister´s office, has failed to be effective. The RAOs will meet a similar fate as the type of work these offices carry out is related to the Home Ministry,” he argued.
The government had first introduced the concept of Regional General Administration Offices and set up two such offices in Surkhet and Dhankuta back in 1997. The offices were entrusted with effecting transfers of non-gazetted government employees, distributing pension books and carrying out administrative audits.
However, the offices were rendered defunct some three years later as their powers were curtailed and the special class officers deputed to the offices also shied away. These offices were not even deemed necessary as there were already zonal administrators deputed to each zone. RAOs were revived again in 2006 as just ´liaison offices´ for all government offices in the region concerned.
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