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Delays, graft, bad behaviour rampant in govt offices: NVC report
Service seekers from eight districts have expressed displeasure at government service as they cannot get timely service delivery and have to bribe officials to get their works done on most of the occasions, a report of the National Vigilance Centre (NVC) reveals.Prithvi Man Shrestha
Service seekers from eight districts have expressed displeasure at government service as they cannot get timely service delivery and have to bribe officials to get their works done on most of the occasions, a report of the National Vigilance Centre (NVC) reveals.
The centre’s findings are in line with the report recently published by the Transparency International Nepal, painting a bleak picture of the government’s service delivery mechanism.
Most of the service seekers also expressed concerns over the quality of the government service and behavior of the civil servants, according to the survey. The anti-graft body under the Prime Minister’s Office, had conducted the survey on government’s service delivery among 400 service seekers from eight districts—Mahottari, Dhanusa, Bara, Parsa, Saptari, Lamjung, Ilam and Myagdi.
District Administration Office, Land Revenue Office, District Development Committee, municipalities were among the government offices included in the survey.
As much as 34 percent of respondents in Dhanusa said they were deprived of timely services at government offices because they refused to pay bribes.
The report suggests as many service seekers in Saptari are suffering from the same fate.
In Ilam, 25 percent of people were denied government service after they refused to grease the palms of officials, while 20 percent of the respondents in Mahottari complained about the problem.
“Overall, complaints about compulsion to bribe and the quality of services are higher in Tarai districts,” said NVC Spokesperson Bishnu Raj Lamichhane. According to the survey, 12 percent of service seekers in Ilam and 5 percent in Myagdi said that they had bribed to get their works done. Quality of service in Bara is best among the surveyed Tarai districts.
Non-performance of duties by government staffers despite staying at the office is another major complaint of the service seekers. The situation in Parsa is pathetic with 100 percent of the respondents complaining about the problem at the government offices in the district.
As well as being uncooperative, most of the service seekers have found behaviour of civil servants irritating, particularly in the Tarai districts.
The report shows 95 percent of the respondents in Mahottari complained about government staffers’ bad behavior, it was 90 percent in Parsa. About 50 percent of respondents in three districts—Bara, Ilam and Saptari—termed behaviour of government staffers as good.
While the respondents in most of the districts had complaints about delay in service delivery, people of Lamjung and Myagdi were found to be relatively happy, with the 65 and 73 percent of the respondents respectively talking favourably about the quality of the service delivery.
“People’s displeasure at behavior and service delivery of the government employees suggests that there is something wrong in the existing system of bureaucracy,” said Lamichhane.
The respondents have suggested the need for equal treatment of service seekers from the government staffers irrespective of their influence and access to certain people power circle.
They have also demanded a more participatory decision making at the local bodies rather than the existing one based on consensus among the political parties.