More than a month since the newly elected local representatives took their oath of office, not a single government staff deputed by the government has assumed office at the local level.

The Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers in the first week of June directed all the ministries to deploy staffs in 283 local units within a week. The respective ministries prepared rosters of officials and deployed some of them to work in the local bodies. However, records at the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development show that not a single official deployed by the centre has taken up the assignment.

Officials have been demanding one level promotion and “respectable” position in the local units. The Local Level Restructuring Commission has proposed 70 staffers in each local unit on an average under the command of a section officer in village councils, under-secretaries in municipalities, and joint secretaries in the metropolises and sub-metropolises.

“Though some ministries have deployed the staff, we have got reports that not any one has reached the local level,” Federal Affairs Ministry Secretary Dinesh Thapaliya told the Post. “It seems deployment of civil servants will be the main hurdle in implementation of federalism.”

Ministries including Livestock Development and Education have transferred the staff while many others are yet to decide on the matter.

Officials picked for deputation at the local level have started “bargaining” before moving to their new duty stations. As many as 348 under-secretaries from the Ministry of Education on Wednesday submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and three deputy PMs, saying that the government’s decision to deploy them under a junior staffer is unacceptable.

The government has decided that officials from the administration group lead the local units. This means that those from other services like education or health will have to work under the administration officers. 

Under-secretaries demand that the senior most official should lead the local level no matter which service s/he belongs to. Local development officials say the government needs to have a firm decision on staff management in order to make the local units operational soon. The constitution provisions executive, legislative and judicial powers to the local federal bodies.